Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport has garnered all sorts of accolades in recent years – including Condé Nast Traveler’s No. 3 best airport in the U.S. in 2023 and most recently Travel + Leisure’s second-best U.S. airport in 2024 – but has that recognition led more travelers to flock to Green?
Not exactly.
While the reader’s choice selections are noteworthy, they have little effect by themselves on a traveler’s decision about which airport to use at the start or end of their journey, according to industry observers.
T.J. Schulz, president of the Airport Consultants Council in Virginia, said an airport’s flight selection is one of the most crucial factors. Passengers are more likely to drive further to get to an airport if it has cheaper flight options with direct routes.
Michael Boyd, president of the Colorado-based Boyd Group International Inc., an aviation consultant who has worked with Green on its passenger models, agreed.
“People don’t choose airports, they choose airlines,” Boyd said.
Indeed, the number of travelers passing through the airport annually has been on the rise in recent years but still has not reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. The R.I. Airport Corp., which operates Green, recorded a total of 3.5 million passengers in 2023, up 10.8% from 2022 and more than double the low of 1.3 million passengers in 2020, when the pandemic sent the aviation industry into a tailspin.
Still, in 2019 Green had a total of 3.7 million travelers, down from a peak of 5.7 million in 2005. Iftikhar Ahmad, CEO and president of the R.I. Airport Corp., told Providence Business News at the time that the goal was to reach about 6 million passengers.
Airport officials haven’t been sitting still.
Green went through a name change in June 2021 from T.F. Green Airport to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport to raise its profile, and the airport operators have undertaken a marketing campaign to tout its convenience compared to Boston Logan International Airport.
Then there are the bathrooms. Funded through federal grants, the airport spent nearly $10 million renovating its bathrooms in 2021. And travelers have noticed.
The tidy bathrooms were certainly celebrated in the most recent Travel + Leisure survey. One voter, a travel consultant with 30 years of experience, noted that Green’s bathrooms have large stalls, as well as live plants and fresh flowers by each sink.
Consultants agree that Green’s size and location truly give it a leg up over other airports, such as Logan.
T.F. Green can be simpler to get to than Logan, where travelers can easily get stuck in traffic. Also, parking, getting through security and navigating the terminals at Green are easier because it’s smaller and usually less crowded than major metropolitan airports.
“All of these factors add up,” Boyd said.
And Boyd noted that the low-cost carrier Breeze Airways has been adding routes from Green, which helped double the number of direct flights in the region. As a result, passenger numbers at Green were up 10% in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2023.
Airport spokesperson John Goodman said the recent rankings reflect the airport’s amenities, ease of travel, route selection and customer service. All of these factors, along with the state’s marketing investments, are what attract passengers, he said.
At the very least, the rankings are a useful way for airport management to measure their success, says Carlos Ozores, an aviation expert with PA Consulting.
“What better way to validate your work than to have people vote for you,” Ozores said.