A.C.'s high-tech airport taking off

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Atlantic City International Airport appears to be a travel anomaly: Flights often arrive and depart early, or at least on time, and security personnel go out of their way to be courteous as they paw through passengers' toiletries.

Thanks to the airport's proximity to the Federal Aviation Administration's technical laboratory and an emerging aviation research park, the latest safety gadgets are the norm here. The type of screening devices at Atlantic City might have prevented the six-hour terminal shutdown Jan. 3 at Newark Liberty International Airport, officials said.

And direct flights to destinations such as Atlanta, Orlando, Boston, and Toronto are a bargain - many as little as $70 each way.

All that service is part of a carefully crafted plan to propel Atlantic City International from a midsize regional airport with about 120,000 landings and takeoffs a year to an adjunct of both Philadelphia International Airport and Newark Liberty. Each of those airports sees more than 500,000 flights coming and going annually.

"With the continuous upgrades to our airport facility and the continuous investment by the FAA and the new aviation research park, we expect this region will be to aviation research what Silicon Valley is to computer sciences," said Sharon Gordon, a spokeswoman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, which owns the airport.

The Atlantic Aviation and Research Technology Park, under construction next to the airport, is expected to advance aviation technology and improve air travel and safety, Gordon said. It will operate with government and private investment.

Last year, SJTA announced its plan to shift as many as 50,000 commercial flights a year from Philadelphia and began courting budget carriers such as AirTran, WestJet, JetBlue, and Southwest.

Spirit Airlines, which has long marketed itself as a low-cost alternative and cut in-flight meals and free baggage long before any of the big carriers, has been flying from Atlantic City to Florida and the Caribbean for more than a decade.

A number of private and charter jets also fly in and out of the airport, and the 4,300-acre facility is home to the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard, which patrols the East Coast, and the Coast Guard.

Attracting AirTran and Canada's WestJet last year helped SJTA, which also operates the Atlantic City Expressway, increase the number of passengers served in the last quarter of 2009 by 31 percent over a year earlier.

Other airports struggled last year as the flagging economy forced airlines to cut back schedules and abandon gates. When AirTran moved to Atlantic City, it ceased operations at Newark Liberty.

Bart R. Mueller, SJTA executive director, said his airport offered airlines a cheaper way to do business, which they embraced. Per-passenger fees and other terminal costs for services such as ramping, fueling, and baggage sorting can run up to $20 in Philadelphia or Newark. Atlantic City's cost is $4.55, Mueller said.

As rivals in Pennsylvania and New York have become more competitive, Atlantic City's gaming halls have increased efforts to bring in high rollers from farther away. They recognize the value of an airport a short shuttle ride away, Mueller said.

"Today's environment in Atlantic City and the region has created the opportunity for new airlines to be financially successful," he said.

Kevin M. Rehmann, SJTA security and operations manager, said a research development agreement with the FAA kept the facility in the forefront with safety equipment and procedural improvements. As it was for previous technologies, such as iris screening and shoe scanning, Atlantic City may be among the first airports to receive full-body scanners.

"This is really the perfect testing ground for many new technologies because we don't have huge crowds coming through here at one time," Rehmann said. "Researchers can come in, conduct their study, and get the information they need with very little effect on the time it takes passengers to get through the terminal."

SJTA also is constructing a $25 million federal inspection station and customs facility in hopes of attracting European airlines, which could mean more than just a couple of flights a day to Canada.

The airport obtained its international status when its extra-long runway was used as a landing location for the now-defunct Concorde when it was diverted from New York or Washington because of weather. The airport is now under contract with NASA as an alternative landing site for the space shuttle.

But it's the more down-to-earth services that attract passengers like Pat Bruno of Pine Hill.

Although she lives 15 minutes from Philadelphia International, Bruno said she recently chose to drive 45 minutes to Atlantic City to catch a Spirit flight to Florida because "the whole experience of flying out of here is so much simpler."

"The security checks, the flights are always on time, the parking," she said. "It's just so much less stressful."

She found the airport's electronic security pods "odd," however. Passengers are detained, one by one, inside small booths for three seconds after they come down an escalator from the arrival gates before they enter the baggage claim area.

"No one could come from the unsecured area here in the baggage claim and go into the secured area of the terminal gates," spokeswoman Gordon said. "Security breaches like the one at Newark are avoided with this sort of device."