New York Airports Want Air Service Funds for a Bus and a Website (SCASDP Week)

(MoneyWatch)  I said that I would talk about creative Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) proposals this week, but I didn't say they'd all be good. Apparently there's something strange going on in upstate New York, because two of the odder proposals have come from Ithaca and Albany.

My favorite for ridiculousness has to be Ithaca's. The airport wants federal funding for a bus. I'm not kidding.

Apparently a major reason why Ithaca travelers don't like to fly from Newark is that the flights are unreliable. So in event of a cancellation, Ithaca wants to fund a back-up bus service that will drive passengers back to Ithaca if the last flight cancels.

I should note that this reliability criticism is completely fair. In the last 60 days, Continental flight 8669 has been scheduled to operate 53 times. On 5 occasions, the flight was canceled - that's nearly 10 percent. Another 11 percent of the time, the flight has been late by over 45 minutes. It was only on time 45 percent of the time.

While I can understand the airport's concern here, this hardly seems like a good solution. I would raise hell with Continental to get them to put a more reliable operation on the route instead of admitting defeat and paying for a bus.

Now let's head down the road to take a look at what Albany's big plan is. Albany is in a different boat than most applicants in that it already has ample service. It even has fairly extensive service from Southwest. So what the heck do they want?

Well for Albany it's another one of those requests for funds to market the airport to people who apparently don't know that the airport exists. Why does this one stand out? They really want to build a website, and they want over $100,000 to do it. Wow. Here's how they describe it:

The FlyAlbany program will provide a major up-grade of the Airport's web site, to include an interactive internet portal to enable business and leisure travelers to search for Albany's low-fares, originating direct destinations, flight specials, plan their parking, arrange car rentals and complete foreign currency exchanges. The FlyAlbany.com website will also enable the Airport to offer travelers the opportunity to enroll in an e-mail program that will provide them with updated and current Airport news, weather, DOT highway congestion and safety alerts, special offers and traveler information. FlyAlbany will also provide real-time parking information to alert travelers of the availabilities of their more desired parking location when they reach the Airport, depending upon if their desires are based upon, cost, convenience or other location based criteria.

Sounds like, well, a website. But creating a booking site is not going to bring them much business at all. People already have places to go to book, and they aren't looking for another one. Yet they are still asking for $128,000 to build this website. Unreal. Give me the $128,000 and I'll gladly get it built for you. Can I keep the remaining $100,000 for myself after I'm done?

But as much emphasis as they put on the website in the proposal, it's only a tiny portion of what they really want. They're asking for nearly $1.3 million in federal funds for traditional things like revenue guarantees and the like.

I just don't get some of these proposals.