New Worcester Regional Airport service to be announced

Photo/Grant Welker The tarmac at Worcester Regional Airport. A new commercial flight is set to be announced Monday.

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By Grant Welker

Officials are set to announce a new commercial flight out of Worcester Regional Airport on Monday.

The announcement is set to come a month before JetBlue begins once-a-day service between Worcester and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

A new destination would be the fourth with year-round service for Worcester. JetBlue already flies to Orlando, Fla., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Rectrix Aviation began flying seasonally to Hyannis last summer.

Rectrix has previously said it plans to fly from Worcester to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, but that route has never been made official.

Service between Worcester and New York starts May 3, with flights once a day.

There will be only one departing flight each day out of Worcester, a 6:04 a.m. departure that lands in New York at 7 a.m. The return flight leaves New York at 10:45 p.m. and lands in Worcester at 11:50 p.m.

An announcement on new service is scheduled for Monday at 8 a.m. In attendance will be Worcester County Sheriff Lewis G. Evangelidis, who chairs the Massport board, Massport CEO Thomas P. Glynn and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.

The airport, which Massport owns and runs, has seen something of a resurgence in commercial flights in recent years.

The hilltop airport, at an elevation far above much of the rest of the city, has long suffered from weather issues that make departures and landings less reliable.

On several occasions, Worcester has had as many as six commercial carriers, but a lack of demand eventually made the routes unfeasible. A new $32-million radar and landing system, called CAT III, is designed to make the airport more attractive to carriers and was cited as a factor in JetBlue announcing the new New York service.