Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who is the Go Green Alliance?
A. A grassroots organization of community leaders, economic development professionals and visionary business executives who support the improvements to Green Airport needed to maintain its economic impact to the Rhode Island economy while improving the safety of air travel. Specifically, Go Green supports the completion of a revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that includes provisions in the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) Master Plan to extend the main runway to accommodate non-stop service to the West Coast and beyond.
Q. What is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)?
A. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is a study conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ascertain the impact of the project, as defined in the Master Plan, on the environment including: noise, land use, air and water quality, wetlands, social impacts and induced socioeconomic impacts.
Q. How long will the EIS take?
A. The EIS is a comprehensive study that is expected to take 18-24 months to complete.
Q. What specific improvements to Green Airport does the Go Green Alliance support?
A. The primary improvement the Go Green Alliance supports is extending the current 7,166-foot runway to accommodate the west coast and beyond.
Q. Why does the Go Green Alliance feel these improvements to Green are necessary?
A. We need to keep pace with our regional competition in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, who have all taken decisive action to keep their airport facilities up-to-date, including extended runways.
Q. Why is it important for Green to keep up with other regional airports?
A. Improvements will help ensure increased safety for passengers, flexibility to accommodate innovations in aircraft design, greater travel options and access to national markets for Rhode Island businesses and institutions.
Q. What will be the impact to the economy of Rhode Island?
A. Today Green Airport generates $2.1 billion in annual economic activity annually, according to the RIAC Fiscal Year 2006 Economic Impact update. We need to ensure that the State does not lose its share of the regional air service industry by choosing to stand still.
Q. Does the airport really impact economic development?
A. Based upon the data collected from the RIAC Fiscal Year 2006 Economic Impact update, Green has a significant impact on virtually all the business sectors in the State. The fact that Rhode Island has a very efficient and convenient airport service is a key selling point for the State's efforts to attract new business and encourage existing businesses to expand.
Q. Doesn't this expansion only benefit a small number of Rhode Islanders?
A. The improvements to the airport are intended to benefit all those who directly or indirectly utilize airport services. This impact will be widespread, but three key groups will benefit:
Business travelers, including those seeking to do business here, or looking to locate all or a portion of their business to the State, as well as Rhode Island-based businesspeople traveling out of state on behalf of their companies. We must sell services and products to national and global markets to stay competitive. This requires convenient, safe, reliable and low cost air service to move people and cargo.
The significant number of Rhode Islanders who travel by air for vacations certainly benefit, as does the State's large and diverse tourism and hospitality industry, which is built on convenient access to the State by air.
Those who utilize airport related services, such as UPS and Fedex also benefit.
A number of indirect impacts, including how and where dollars are spend by over 2,000 direct jobs and over 11,000 indirect jobs generated by airport services, suggests a benefit to a very large subset of the State.
Q. Will this expansion bring jobs to Rhode Island?
A. Should this improvement program achieve even a fraction of the impact of the early 1990's program, the answer is yes. Simply the increase in direct airport-related jobs would be significant. The FAA estimates Alternative B4 will bring 1,800 new jobs, with 800 of those being in the city of Warwick.
Q. Is coast-to-coast travel really that important?
A. Rhode Island is integrated into a national and global economy that often requires our business people to travel to west coast destinations and beyond and our tourism interests reach out to all parts of the nation. Until this improvement project is completed we will be forcing both visitors and Rhode Islanders to drive to other airports for this class of travel.
Q. Why not leave the coast-to-coast routes to Logan and Manchester?
A. In any business you want to avoid driving your customers into the arms of your competitors. Green was able to increase its market presence dramatically during the Big Dig and Logan reconstruction period. Most of those who abandoned Logan have stuck with Green.
Q. Will the expansion guarantee that the airlines will offer more travel options, including coast-to-coast service?
A. Airlines are demand driven companies who respond quickly to market conditions and, therefore, do not guarantee their service on a long-term basis. It is however a certainty that they will not offer coast-to-coast service if the runway is not improved. The current runway length does not allow the airlines to fill their fuel tanks in larger aircraft to full capacity, a requirement for coast-to-coast service.