Can T.F. Green Jump Start the RI Economy?

Can T.F. Green Jump Start the RI Economy?

Rhode Island's T.F. Green Airport announced the addition of Norwegian Air on Thursday, marking one of its biggest developments in recent history, by adding five affordable direct destination flights to Ireland and Scotland. 

As Rhode Island works to improve on its national business rankings and revamp a botched tourism campaign rollout, how big is this for the state?

"Expansion is huge for us," said Martha Sheridan, President of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. "When we're bidding on a convention, we're most often on a list of three, five, seven cities, that a planner is considering. It's a competitive bid process with a RFP we respond to and part of that response is direct flight information."

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"So if there's a grid comparing Providence to say Pittsburgh and Baltimore -- the more service we can show as direct from T.F. Green the better chances we have of landing [the convention]," added Sheridan. "Now we can offer direct international service, and that's a game changer."

SLIDES: 7 Things You Need to Know About Norwegian BELOW

Airport and Norwegian officials have touted the direct jobs that the airline's arrival will create -- initially, 75 Rhode Island-based employees will be hired and that number is expected to immediately grow to 200. Additionally, direct jobs tied to the expansion are expected to create another 200

Potential for Growth

Rhode Island Airport Corporation President and CEO Iftikhar Ahmad appeared on GoLocal LIVE Thursday, and spoke to the impact of passenger growth -- and where the airport is looking next. 

VIDEO: See Ahmad Talk About RI BELOW

"Each passenger that comes in is going to have a direct spend of $977 dollars. If you were to multiply that by say half of those folks coming over, we are talking tens of millions of dollars of direct spend," said Ahmad. "But it's also for us -- in terms of economic development --  it is about creating the atmosphere where other people notice us. All of that is very exciting and hopefully we will see expansion."

Ahmad spoke to what he sees as next steps for Green. 

"Our strategy is to fan out into Europe. We need Toronto, whether that's Air Canada, Porter, or WestJet, we need Toronto," said Ahmad. "We need to go into Latin America, for medical tourism coming to our area. And also more importantly, [we need to] get into the middle-central of the United States and to western United States. I'm talking about Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, LA -- these are the places we need to go next."

"We're talking to airlines, and we're going to try and convince them to come [here]," said Ahmad.

Ahmad came to Green in September 2016, after having overseen significant growth while head of the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. As Green reported:

Mr. Ahmad spearheaded an unprecedented period of growth in New Orleans. Under Mr. Ahmad’s leadership annual passenger traffic grew from 7.8 million passengers in 2009 to 10.7 million in 2015, representing an increase of more than 36%. These numbers are projected to surpass 11 million in 2016, which would mark a 42% increase over 2009. During that same timeframe, passenger travel at peer airports declined by 6.6% while New Orleans broke all its previous records.

He grew the total number of airlines serving New Orleans to a record of 15 having recruited 10 additional airlines since 2010. He also significantly increased non-stop flights from 28 to 57. Additionally, Mr. Ahmad secured new routes to Latin America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada and Europe.