Joan McDonald teams with April Gasparri to oversee County Airport policy, operations
March 6, 2024 at 11:45 p.m.
April Gasparri, 47, a West Point graduate and Afghan combat helicopter pilot with an MBA in Global Management from Rutgers and until recently the first woman in Westchester County history to be the general manager of Westchester County Airport, has a new and more powerful County job.
She is now director of aviation for the County, reporting directly to Joan McDonald, the County’s director of operations, who in turn reports directly to County Executive George Latimer.
Taking her old job with Avports, the firm the County has long hired to run the airport, is Francisco Tejada. He now reports to Gasparri, who maintains her office at the airport.
The Avports contract is, according to McDonald, “for the day-to-day operations and for the day-to-day interface with the airlines. They did not have a policy role and now April has a policy role with me.”
Gasparri was not only lured to leave Avports for the County with this enlarged policy role, but also with a $210,485 yearly salary.
While Gasparri was not made available for an interview, McDonald said she is “directly responsible for working with me on the Master Plan, as we take a look at what direction the airport is going, and as we make decisions on environmental issues that are much more policy driven, whether it pertains to PFAS (Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) or brownfields remediation. Those are just two examples.”
April Gasparri, director of aviation, Westchester CountyCourtesy of April Gasparri
When asked about others, McDonald mentioned modifications to the security line at the airport following a meeting with TSA officials. The changes “helped improve the flow of passengers.”
McDonald also noted that Gasparri worked with her, along with Tejada, “in looking at additional airport parking we needed for the holidays from Thanksgiving through April. That’s our crunch time at the airport when we see the passenger volumes with holiday travel and spring breaks. Some of the other overcrowding issues we’re looking at is potential improvement, once you get through security, to see if we can improve that passenger experience in the main terminal.”
In late 2023, 60 new parking spots were added adjacent to the long-term and overflow parking area and near the existing parking garage. With the additional spaces, the airport has 1,675 parking spots available for the “holiday season.”
Gasparri and McDonald will be on call for County Attorney John Nonna as he oversees two major County lawsuits involving the airport.
Both are in Federal Court.
One involves the air carrier JSX’s refusal to abide by the County’s Terminal Use Regulations and insistence on flying scheduled air service out of the private aviation side of the airport, thus avoiding the main passenger terminal. JSX’s tickets are sold online.
The other lawsuit involves Million Air, the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) on the private side of the airport, and its hangar expansion.
McDonald said finalization of the Master Plan “is on hold while we work our way through these lawsuits. We don’t want to do anything to jeopardize where we are in these lawsuits.”
The other County Airport land use issue for which McDonald and Gasparri await a resolution is the proposed Westchester Joint Water Works (WJWW) County Airport land swap. The resolution of that issue currently lies in an up or down vote of the County Legislature.
Relations with commercial airlines
McDonald wanted airport advocates and critics to be clear about the differences between the Terminal Use Regulations (which as she noted are “enshrined in County law” and “dictate the number of slots and passengers per half hour and the lottery system used by the County and the Airport in designating those slots”) and the Terminal Use Agreements.
The latter are, in McDonald’s words, “agreements between the individual commercial airlines and HPN which embody the operating requirements such as baggage handling, emergency response, location of the individual ticket kiosks, etc. Each commercial airline which operates out of HPN has an agreement. These agreements must adhere to all of the legal requirements of the Terminal Use Regulations—there can be no variation.”
In this connection, the Westmore News noted both the departure (after decades at HPN) of United Airlines and the cancellation by Breeze Airways of its groundbreaking transcontinental A-220-300 service to Los Angeles after just three months. Difficulties with slot availabilities and other HPN issues were cited at the time.
Breeze currently offers service out of HPN to Charleston, S.C.; New Orleans; Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Vero Beach, Fla.
Those A-220-300 jets, which Breeze is now acquiring at the rate of one a month, have revolutionized the carrier’s offerings at regional airports like Hartford and Providence. Even nearby Stewart Airport has become a Breeze center with nonstop flights to Orlando, Fla. and Charleston, S.C.
So the Westmore News asked McDonald “what carrots can you offer (Breeze CEO David) Neeleman to bring the trans-continental service that people loved so much back to the airport?”
McDonald replied: “You raise a very good point and I think that’s something I will speak with April about and we will reach out to David to see what we can do within the confines of County law. There are slots available.”
How those slots will be filled within current confines is the HPN story of the moment.
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