Good Question: Are there international flights at the Rochester airport?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Does the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport still have international flights?

The next time you’re at the Rochester airport, take a look at the arrivals and departures list. You’ll notice that all of them are domestic, staying within the United States. What, then, makes our airport international? That’s what one of you wanted to know.

John wrote to us asking: “are there any actual international flights in and out of the Greater Rochester International Airport? Everyone I’ve known who has flown out of Rochester has had to catch their international flight out of New York mostly or some other major city.”

News10NBC’s Emily Putnam: “Does the Rochester airport have any international flights currently?”

Rochester airport director Andy Moore: “Yeah, absolutely we do. Most of that is on the general aviation side of the airport”

That’s the side off Scottsville Road, not the Brooks Avenue entrance where the public arrives and departs.

“So whether it’s general aviation flights, whether it’s business travel, or what people don’t think about – we have extensive cargo traffic coming in and out of the airport itself. and so you don’t see that on the commercial side of the airport,” Moore said.

The general aviation side has international cargo flights from shipping companies like FedEx and DHL. Andy says more than 300 million pounds of cargo is shipped through the Rochester airport each year, some of it from international locations.

“Mexico and some of the Caribbean countries are the farthest flights. International flights coming into Rochester, whether it’s corporate, cargo, or general aviation,” Moore said.

As for the possibility of future international flights that you can book a seat on…”there’s a handful of Canadian airlines, Moore said. “Whether, again, it’s Air Canada, Westjet, Porter, Flare, that I’ve met with over the last couple years to talk about Rochester, to talk about international traffic and international flights to Canadian destinations and so forth. So, I do think that the potential is there out of Rochester, we’re just not there yet.”

So, does the Rochester airport have international flights? yes. Can the public book seats on those international flights? no.

Moore says another reason the international designation is important is diversions. If an international flight needs to land because of a medical emergency, for example, it can do that in Rochester because we’re international. That actually happened with a flight out of Toronto back in December.

The last time Rochester had a commercial international flight was in 2018 when Air Canada flew three times a day into and out of Toronto.

If you have a good question, send it to us at goodquestion@whec.com