Port authority OKs pact with PR firm

An airport official expects the public relations firm to attract a variety of businesses.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
VIENNA -- Western Reserve Port Authority has hired an international public relations firm for $80,000 to help find customers to use Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
"We've got a great product with such great potential and we realize these companies are not just going to come to us," said Thomas P. Nolan, director of aviation.
"We've got to go out and find them and we're going to need some help with that."
The port authority hired GPC International, based in Canada, to market the airport, Nolan said.
"We firmly believe the best opportunities for this airport and the community are still out there," Nolan said. "An international firm will help bring these projects to us."
Targets: Among the prospective clients, Nolan said, are airlines, air cargo companies, corporate aviation, companies looking to locate in an industrial park, and air traffic assembly and maintenance businesses.
"The biggest struggle for any small community is how to get that word out," Nolan said. "We hope this firm is going to be a key in helping make this successful."
GPC was selected over a number of other firms because it was the only one willing to concentrate on attracting a variety of prospective clients, Nolan said.
"Other firms only focus on one particular area, but GPC will do it all," he said.
GPC has done marketing work for a number of airports, including Cleveland Hopkins and Akron-Canton.
Nolan said the nine-month contract was approved Wednesday by the port authority, which operates the airport.
Improvements: During the past decade, the port authority has spent more than $40 million on improvements at the airport including lengthening and improving runways, upgrading terminals and improving hangar facilities for air cargo traffic. Also, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce owns a 500-acre parcel near the airport that is being used as an industrial park.
By July 2002, construction on the King Graves Road interchange at state Route 11 near the airport will be finished. That interchange is seen by airport and government officials as a key to growth of the facility.