Talk:Westover Metropolitan Airport

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Redirected from Westover Field

I noticed that Westover Field redirects here. I found no mention of this name in the article and a Google search turned up nothing that I could work with. I'm changing the redirect to point to Amador County Airport (O70). If you have any disagreements, please drop me a note on my talk page and we can wok on a dab. Thadius856 19:08, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is because when Westover was turned over to the government, it was called Westover Field. This happened back in 1974 I believe then in 1976 when the base the established. Since then they decreased in size by almost 50% selling their land to large distribution plants and trucking companies. FroggerCod 05:29, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the signs of Route 33 and the MassPike still say Westover Field. Calitorp (talk) 17:25, 26 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hartford = Chicopee?

I challenge the first clause of the statement "Due to its proximity to Connecticut, discount carrier Skybus Airlines markets Westover as "Hartford (Chicopee, MA)" on its route maps." Without a third party reference verifying it, I would prefer to let our readers make inferences about why Skybus markets Westover as Hartford then to make the inference for them. If it's obvious, then we don't need to say it anyway.

Also, a number of edits have tried to find a way to claim that Westover is the only airport in Massachusetts other than Logan 1) offering commercial service (which isn't true), 2) offering jet service (also not true), 3) offering commercial service beyond neighboring states (however that's defined; Nantucket Memorial Airport has service to Virginia), or 4) west of Boston offering commercial service. Without a reference asserting notability, I don't think any of these statements are worth including and strike me as bordering on a marketing effort for either the airport or Skybus.

However, I've reverted these changes enough in the last few days, so I'll let someone else revert or form a consensus here. ASHill (talk) 19:37, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is notable

Beyond a novelty like Nantucket and the state's major airport (Logan), there is only one airport with a national airline in Mass. It is Westover. That is notable. You would need to drive exactly 90.5 miles between BOS and CEF. There is also some notability because MassPort's airports have no service except Logan. Now I agree that the comments about ORH had no place and I deleted them. That being said, it is significant that there are only two airports on the mainland of MA that offer scheduled flights that are not classified as commuter flights. Yes, you can fly from VA and NY to Nantucket. But I suspect that no other airport beyond BOS and CEF offer service to four out-of-state destinations. Calitorp (talk) 20:08, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If there's a third-party source (i.e. not the Skybus or Airport web site) that says Westover is a notable airport, great. If not, this seems like original research to me.

Passenger statistics might be a useful indicator for a comparison, but that's hard because Skybus is brand new. On aircraft movements, according to their Wikipedia pages, Westover is far below Nantucket, for example. Nantucket has long-standing service by major carriers and affiliates (and the other Cape & Islands airports have major carrier-affiliated service), while Westover does not. Also, nearby Bradley markets itself as Hartford/Springfield (legitimately) and serves western Massachusetts. ASHill (talk) 20:21, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How is it original research? It is easy to verify that Westover is the only MA passenger airport west of Boston. That would not be the case if Worcester was operating, but it isn't. To someone looking to visit, it is valuable information. Otherwise they might need to look at all the other airports to see which have airline service. This clearly states that it and BDL are the only two pax airports in the region. Let it go. It is valuable information and if it annoys you that much, then clarify it. The fact is that beyond Wikipedia, it is marketed as Springfield/Hartford in the real world. Calitorp (talk) 20:27, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My statement about original research has more to do with what I perceive as a pattern of trying to find a way to assert that Westover is the second most important airport in Massachusetts than with the verifiability of the claim. However, how's the current version? Instead of mentioning Logan explicitly in the intro, just mention the Skybus service. (It doesn't much matter that New Bedford, Nantucket, or even Boston are in Massachusetts; Bradley is much more of an alternative anyway.)

At the risk of throwing out too many policies, we should keep in mind that Wikipedia is not a travel guide, so this shouldn't be targeted too much at someone looking to visit. ASHill (talk) 21:04, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The current version looks good, but I'm not sure that it is appropriate to put the airline in the intro. We don't like to see that because it definitely looks like marketing. Calitorp (talk) 21:11, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough, but it's common to have the largest carriers at airports listed in the intro, albeit usually for focus cities/hubs. I'm not terribly concerned about it here; it seems a bit silly to say something like "One airline provides commercial service for Westover," but the presence of commercial service certainly is worth including in the intro. ASHill (talk) 21:17, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]