REGIONAL AIRPORT Consultant: No luck yet in landing an airline, but Delta talks continue

By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- Prospects of luring a commercial airline to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in the current business climate are dim, and would likely require large financial contributions from local government or business groups, a consultant told the Western Reserve Port Authority board today.
The consultant, Mark Kiehl of KH Group Consulting, has been paid $78,000 so far this year to prepare a grant application and market the local airport to airlines. He has delivered the airport's pitch to eight airlines so far, he told the board, but none bit.
Discussions are continuing with Delta, which could offer service to a hub in Cincinnati, which he said would be attractive to local fliers.
The next step in those discussions would be to say what the port authority, which runs the airport, can offer them, he said.
"I believe they realize there is a lot of value in the area," said Kiehl on a speakerphone from Washington, D.C. "But offering assistance with marketing and advertising is not enough to pull them in."
Neither would dropping the normal fee the airport charges tenants, he said. The Vienna facility has been without regular passenger service since Northwest Airlines pulled out earlier this year.
"If we wiped out all the costs of operating at the airport -- and I believe that we talked about this with the carriers -- it still wouldn't be enough all by itself to lead them to a decision to enter service," he said.
Golden Airways
Kiehl said he has not been involved with discussions with a potential start-up airline, Golden Airways, but that he thought continuing the conversations had merit.
"The airlines today just don't have the willingness to take risks that they did 10 years ago," he said.
He recommended that the port authority board stay the course and continue reaching out to airlines until the business environment changes.
At the meeting, the port authority board did not directly address the decision by Trumbull County commissioners to hold off on paying $75,000 of their $263,000 annual subsidy until they they were reassured that the airport is turning around.
Mahoning County will likely hold back a similar amount, said Ed Reese, a Mahoning County commissioner.
"We are not going to give more than Trumbull County," he said.
Mahoning County commissioners will vote next week on paying $75,000 of the $150,000 they still haven't paid, he said.