BELMONT: Belmont venue change creates unique challenges for aviation

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — When he departed Baltimore and signed in New York, baseball legend Reggie Jackson famously said, “I didn’t come to New York to be a star, I brought my star with me.”

As the eyes of the horse racing world shift their attention from the Preakness in Baltimore to New York and the Belmont Stakes, the festival will attract star power to the Spa City.

Ah but what factors go into logistically handling private air jet traffic in the condensed Captial Region versus the grander New York City metro area? For that, we turned to Janine K. Iannarelli, founder and president of Par Avion Ltd. She has more than 35 years of business aviation experience representing numerous corporations and private individuals worldwide with the sale and purchase of business aircraft.

“The difference overall I would say is first of all the size of the airports that can accommodate both parking and the operations in and out,” Iannarelli remarked on the discrepancies of each area.

“When you think about the New York metro area, most of the business jets you see don’t go to Laguardia or JFK or Newark. They go to surrounding what we otherwise be known as general aviation airports that also facilitate commercial operations. For example, out on Long Island, they might go to MacArthur Airport or Farmingdale. Closer in they might go to Teterboro in New Jersey or Westchester County. That gives people the luxury to filter in when they want for the entire area to be able to handle the operations,” Iannarelli explained.

“Now take into a much more condensed area and particularly when you talk about Saratoga Airport which is relatively small with one fixed base operator on the field who doesn’t really have much infrastructure and limited parking on the ramp space. You have Albany and a fixed base operator in the name of Million Air and they might have a little bit more parking on the apron,” Iannarelli noted on the limitations.

According to Iannarelli, the Belmont draws a more local crowd versus say, the Breeders Cup. She noted there’s typically a 10 to 15 percent increase in aviation traffic but added that it’s hard to measure with scattered airports.

She thinks the possibility of increased aviation traffic exists for this Belmont simply because of the change of venue and the fact that so many racing enthusiasts make Saratoga home for themselves.

So how do airports and operators adjust for big sporting events on the fly, if you will? According to Iannarellia, air traffic control will sometimes go to slots to schedule people in terms of arrivals and departures.

“That happens when you have events like Super Bowl or any of the major sporting events, including [the Indianapolis 500] this coming weekend where Indianapolis will see probably over 700 business jets coming in and out,” Iannarelli said.

“Everything that goes with it, you need additional personnel to support the operations, you need additional fuel on hand. That’s kind of the complexity of handling a major sporting event and it should be interesting,” Iannarelli noted.

She also commented on what the additional aviation traffic could mean for making accommodations.

“Most flight crews are used to this, they plan ahead, they’re gonna call ahead, figure out if there’s gonna be parking available. If there’s not, there’s gonna be what they call a drop and reposition,” Iannarelli said.

“They’ll drop the passengers at the nearest possible location, ideally Saratoga, and then they’ll move on and park the airplane for the weekend somewhere nearby, which could be as far north as Burlington, or Schenectady’s a possibility but maybe not as much, I heard Glens Falls but I’m not sure what the operation is there. Albany may get crowded, so then people are gonna have to go back down south if the parking gets taken up,” Iannarelli continued.

“I know the fuel provider at Saratoga is sending extra fuel trucks, extra personnel, so they anticipate an early influx. They kinda support the racing season that way but they expect it to be a big weekend,” Iannarelli added.

According to Iannarelli, Albany International Airport’s Million Air can accommodate 50 or 60 jets. Some flyers also use NetJets for fractional share operations, jets for drop-off, and scheduled pickup. That can help defray some of the costs with jet parking fees of $7,500 per day at events like the Super Bowl and Kentucky Derby.

Iannarelli further explained what adjustments could be made locally on the ground to adapt for incoming flights.

“I almost think [Saratoga] county would have to be willing to close a runway to allow parking and that does happen at other airports with big sporting events, they close a runway and they strategically park all the airplanes but then that’s also why you get slots for people to come and go,” Iannarelli remarked.

“It’s not just about parking, when they give slots, it’s about managing the traffic in the air and coming out of New York City into Albany and further up,” Iannarelli noted.

“You’re gonna see probably a big influx on Friday, maybe on Thursday night if Friday has a big race card and then you’ll have staggered departures from Sunday morning right on through that afternoon, those would be the busiest days,” Iannarelli added.