Greater Rochester International Airport: Gateway to the World’s Image Centre
Part 1: 1920s-1990

Text and airport plans by James C. Kruggel Ph.D. (aka BWI-ROCman from DAC)
Primary Sources: City of Rochester and Monroe County documents, and the Rochester Times-Union and Democrat and Chronicle
Above: Rochester International as it was in November 1985
Introduction. Rochester, New York was settled in the late 1700’s and incorporated in 1834. The city grew and prospered along the new Erie Canal, part of a water ‘superhighway’ from New York City to developing Western New York State. Rochester’s economy was first built upon waterfall-fueled mills and canal trade. But it was image-related manufacturing that would power Rochester through the 20th Century. In 1880, inventor George Eastman founded Kodak, which became the world’s largest consumer photography company. Eastman poured his wealth into philanthropy, giving Rochester exceptional cultural endowments for a city its size.
By the mid 20th century, document giant Xerox and vision giant Bausch and Lomb had been founded in Rochester. Medical-equipment and car-parts manufacturing, and other  technology companies, helped build Rochester’s white-collar culture further.  What was once the “Flour City” became the “Flower City” with beautiful gardens such as Highland Park.  A 1990’s economic-development slogan described Rochester as “The World’s Image Centre.”
Founding of the Airport to the 1940’s. What is now Greater Rochester International Airport was founded in 1919 on land just four miles southwest of the city center, in the townships of Chili and Gates. The city bought the field in 1921 and named it Britton Field.  Air mail service began in 1924, and passenger air service began in 1927. In 1928 the airport was renamed Rochester Municipal Airport. A few hangars and a snowflake-pattern of runways were built. The airport served general aviation as well as passenger and mail service. Monroe County acquired the airport from the City of Rochester.
1950’s: New Terminal, Rapid Growth. In the 1950’s, Rochester and growing suburbs in Monroe County prospered. The rapidly growing airline industry connected Rochester to other cities from Chicago to New York, Washington, and Boston, in ‘milk-run’ style service that often landed in neighboring cities. American, Mohawk, and Capital airlines offered service in Rochester on a variety of twin- and four-engined propliners. In 1953, the city opened a new one-level red-brick terminal with a clock tower, accessed from the north side of the airfield. A bright glass concourse faced the airfield, and passengers walked out to their planes from this area.
1960’s: Terminal and Runway Expansion, and the Jet Age. In the early 1960s, the jet age dawned and Rochester’s prosperity continued. In 1963, Monroe County opened two large expansions to the terminal.  A gate concourse and baggage claim for American Airlines were built on the east end. An angled gate concourse and new ticketing and baggage areas for Mohawk and United (who had bought Capital in 1961) were built on the west end. Jet service to Rochester began in January 1965, when American introduced the Boeing 727-100 in the carrier’s classic “Astrojet” livery.
The existing runways were too short to easily serve jets. In 1967, a new runway angled to the southwest into the town of Chili was built, and lengthened to its current 8,002’ in 1969. This runway allowed American Airlines to land larger 707 jets.
1970’s: Prosperity and Stability. By 1970, American served Rochester with 707’s and 727’s. Mohawk flew BAC-111’s and prop planes in a smart ‘Indian head’ livery.  United used Boeing 727’s and 737’s. In 1972-1973, American briefly offered Rochester’s only scheduled passenger jumbo-jet service, on DC-10’s to Chicago, Cleveland, Syracuse, and  New York-LaGuardia.  In 1972, Washington National Airport-based “local-service” carrier Allegheny Airlines bought Mohawk. Allegheny subsequently introduced DC-9 jet service to Rochester on regional routes such as New York and Boston.
Above: Typical scheduled traffic of the 1950s-1970s
1978: The Deregulation Watershed. The United States deregulated fares and routes in 1978, bringing tumultuous changes to the industry. Airlines could now add or drop interstate routes, and set fares, without government approval. Larger “trunk” carriers dropped many regional routes at medium- and –smaller sized markets such as Rochester, concentrating on developing connecting hubs at major airports.
Smaller “Local service” carriers experimented with hubs of their own, sometimes keeping and sometimes dropping regional routes.  Many new airlines were founded, roiling the industry with their lower costs, and usually lasting a short time. Cities suddenly had two and three times as many airlines, with signs and ticket counters changing rapidly as new airlines started and folded.

Rochester was swiftly impacted.  American and United dropped most regional routes, and concentrated on flights to developing hubs in Chicago. Allegheny grew to be the airport’s largest carrier, retaining most regional flights.

Rochester’s technological economy insulated it somewhat from the national economic de-industrialization and move towards an ‘information and service’ economy.  But Rochester’s conservative financial culture, plus dominance of the high cost structures of pre-Deregulation carriers, meant that traffic stagnated at what was now called the Rochester-Monroe County Airport.

Above: ROC's 1953 terminal as it appeared in late 1984. American, Emery, US Air and Empire Airlines planes are visible.
1980’s: Airline Turbulence: New Entrants, Restructuring, and Rapid Growth. Trunk carrier Eastern entered Rochester in 1979. Eastern took over United’s old route to Atlanta, where Eastern was developing a powerhouse hub.  North Carolina-based local-service carrier Piedmont and Minnesota-based local service carrier Republic (itself a combination of three pre-Deregulation local service carriers) entered in 1984. They offered service to hubs in Baltimore and Detroit, respectively. Allegheny renamed itself USAir in 1979, seeking a more national image for the Deregulation era.
 
Regional-airline entrants included Altair (folded 1982), Christman Air, and a quixotic little airline named Best that flew bright blue DC-9’s to regional markets like Detroit and Philadelphia. Some regional carriers that entered Rochester, such as Brockway Air, Air North, Mall Airways, and Ransome, later became feeders for larger carriers.

A smart regional carrier from Utica, Empire, prospered with F-28 regional jets  to New York and Boston, and a Syracuse hub. Piedmont bought Empire in 1986. Rochester’s first foreign carrier, Canada’s City Express, offered Dash-7 turboprop service to Toronto briefly in 1985.
 
Perhaps Deregulation’s brashest and (temporarily) most-successful startup was Newark, NJ-based low-fare carrier PeoplExpress. Started with three used Boeing 737’s at Newark’s abandoned North Terminal in 1981, by 1986 PeoplExpress was a massive national powerhouse that had bought three local-service carriers and flew 747’s to Europe.  In 1985, PeoplExpress entered Rochester with flights to the Newark hub. Other carriers matched People’s low fares, and Rochester’s traffic grew 38 percent in 1985. That year, the airport was renamed Greater Rochester International Airport. Another Deregulation startup, Chicago’s Midway Airlines, bought Eastern’s Philadelphia hub as that carrier ailed in 1989. Midway offered flights on bright red-and-white DC-9’s from Rochester to PHL until its 1991 demise.

Picture
Apron view from April 1986
Later 1980’s: Terminal Replacement, NYANG Base, and New Cargo Terminal. By the mid-1980’s the old 1953 terminal was outgrown.  Small expansions in the 1970’s and 1980’s had added more boarding lounges and 10 jetways, plus a small second floor for airport offices. In 1988, after spending several years evaluating options, Monroe County approved a $109 million new 22-gate two-story terminal and parking garage.
 
The new terminal was built in stages upon the existing terminal site, using a series of temporary prefabricated buildings to accommodate passengers during construction and demolition. This new terminal featured a two-level approach road and three-story garage, light-gray metal-spandrel exterior, a vast concessions atrium, curtain-wall windows throughout, and two angled 11-gate two-story concourses. It was completed in 1992.
 
In the late 80’s, a dedicated cargo terminal was opened on the airport’s northwest side by a new Rochester-based cargo-terminal operator first named Airport Systems, then renamed USAirports. Dedicated cargo service by FedEx on purple 727’s, and Emery on red-and-white DC-8’s, had begun in the 1980’s. Around that time, FedEx built a dedicated cargo terminal of its own on the airport’s south side.
 
At about this time, the New York Air National Guard (NYANG) opened a helicopter base on the airport’s south side, which would be expanded in subsequent decades.  The airport has seen operations by NYANG’s massive C-5 cargo aircraft.

End of the 1980’s: Consolidation and Stagnation with High Fares. Rochester was still prosperous in the late 1980’s. But Kodak like other US corporate giants had become complacent, and had to slim down in the face of foreign competition. Rochester’s economy nevertheless remained largely sound. Meanwhile, airline managements and stockholders, wanting stability and profitability, began working to tame the turmoil of Deregulation.
 
Led by CEO’s such as American’s ruthless Bob Crandall, Republic’s Stephen Wolf, and Continental-Texas Air’s much-hated Frank Lorenzo, the airline industry consolidated between 1986 and 1989. The result was six “legacy” carriers: American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, and USAir. People Express destroyed itself by over-expanding, and was bought by higher-cost Continental in 1987. A new era of high fares and stagnant enplanements began for medium- and small-size USA markets such as Rochester.  An exception was those markets served by quiet but wily Texas-based low-fare carrier Southwest Airlines.