he airport completely. James Hagan is the president of the Greater Providence Chamber Of Commerce and he is in complete favor of the expansion of the airport. In Jume of 2003 Mr. Hagan conducted a telephone survery of RI residents. He had polled 536 residents randomly over the phone. His survey confirmed the Chamber's postion that T.F. Green is essential to the economic vitality of RI. The results are as followed; 75% of the respondants had a favorable impression of Green, 97% polled felt that the airport was important to RI's economy, 71% indicated a desire for nonstop service to the west coast, and 74% favored extending the runways at T.F. Green for safety purposes. Interestingly in Kent County, the county which would be most affected by the expansion 71% of those polled were in favor of the expansion of the airport(Hagan 1).
             The main reasons why both bussiness's and economists believe that the airport should be expanded is becasue of competitiveness. James Hagan believes that RI should not sit back and wathc the expansions of other New England airports because in the long run T.F. Green will end up losing many of thier passengers. Hagan wants to see T.F. Green expanded as quick as possisble in order to accomadate those passengers who need to fly directly to the west coast. "All these factors could slash passenger traffic at Green. We need to act now to ensure that Green remains a strong, viable economic
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