What is 10,850 feet long and hardly used?

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What is 10,850 feet long and hardly used?  It appears to be Niagara Falls International Airport.  In and of itself there are other airports around the U.S. with man runway lengths exceeding 9,800 feet that are little or unused.  The most prominent is the Mid-America Airport just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, MO located in Mascoutah, IL. Mid-America’s 14L/32R is 10,000 feet in length and sees ZERO passenger traffic.  Niagara Falls 10L/28R currently serviced by Direct Air, Spirit, and Allegiant Airlines.  They provide service to South Carolina and Florida with upcoming service to the Bahamas and San Juan.  In the past year IAG, it air code designation, saw 100,000 passengers depart through its gates.

So what is the problem?  Unlike St. Louis about 22 million people visit the Falls from all around the nation, the continent and the world.  What is surprising is that passenger aircraft landing at IAG pay a tariff that is unimaginably less than airlines pay in Toronto, New York JFK and Newark EWR.

The landing fee for  Trans-Atlantic/Trans-Pacific  B-747/200 at these airports costs:

Landing fee comparison

Aircraft

JFK

EWR

YYZ

IAG (NFIA)

737

$113,490

$132,210

$289,458

$21,060

767

$340,470

$396,630

$868,374

$63,180

320

$122,569

$142,787

$312,615

$22,745

747 -200

$630,248

$734,206

$1,607,457

$116,953

AN124

$675,549

$786,980

$1,722,999

$125,360
Based on three flights per week at 90 cents MTOW.
Even with those ridiculously low landing fees you do find offers from  New York City operators sell foreign tourists 12 hours tours of Niagara Falls from New York City  for  $450.  (buy newyorktours.com).  Titan Tours of the United Kingdom does the same but at about $180 less because they bus their tourists down from Toronto.   The Niagara Falls tourism scene is like a non-reader checking out a book.  You glance at the book jacket summary and then simply move along never learning the whole story.

The shame is locals along the river including  businessman, resident, politician really do not seem overly concerned that a globalized world and its resulting tourism is rapidly passing them by.  The Falls, Hiking in the Niagara River Gorge right down to the river itself, three  magnificent 200 year old French and British constructed fortresses within 26 miles of each other,  jet boat rides on the rapids, 2 major amusement parks, 2 aquariums, golf, some of the best fresh water fishing in the world,  world class vineyards, professional sports, wonderful architecture,  the music scene, the art galleries, etc.  All passed over because no one wants to find a way to make Niagara Falls International Airport truly international with a place in the minds of travelers for more than 12 hours.