REGIONAL AIRPORT Carrier's pullout spurs talk of cuts

Private, military and charter planes continue to use the Vienna facility.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
VIENNA -- Officials will consider budget and staff cuts at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport after the announcement that its last commercial airline is taking off for good.
"The maintenance requirements might be different, the security might be different," said Joseph J. Angelo Jr., Trumbull County commissioner. "There are a lot of unanswered questions."
Northwest Airlines asked the Department of Transportation's permission to discontinue service here Sept. 8.
"We have been advised that there is virtually no possibility we will convince the DOT not to let them," said Reid Dulberger, chairman of the board of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the airport.
Northwest's twice-daily weekday service to Detroit attracted about 400 passengers a month, officials said.
Its departure will leave the airport without any regularly scheduled passenger service.
"I don't think it was a huge shock," said Vickie Allen Sherlock, a Mahoning County commissioner. "When you have only one carrier, it was certainly a possibility."
Others have left
Four commercial airlines have pulled out of the airport in the past five years, even as officials completed $40 million in improvements.
Upgrades included putting in the longest runway in Northeast Ohio and increasing the number of passenger terminals from two to six.
Northwest is discontinuing its service for the same reason US Airways did last year: It has not been selling enough tickets to make money on the route.
"It is a very difficult decision, but in today's financial environment, it is not viable to continue service," said Mary Beth Shubert, a Northwest spokeswoman.
The airline contributed about $34,100 in revenue to the airport. Passengers also provide a customer base for the two rental-car agencies there.
The airport restaurant closed last year.
"The airline industry is in disarray," said Ed Reese, a Mahoning County commissioner. "Northwest is a company that lost $600 million in the last year, and there is not much Mahoning County can do to help."
Cost-cutting measures
The port authority board will announce at its meeting Wednesday some cost-cutting measures to offset the loss, Dulberger said.
Possibilities could include reducing the hours the airport terminal remains open, he said.
"There will be layoffs," said Michael O'Brien, a Trumbull County commissioner.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties subsidize the airport. Each will each contribute $315,000 this year toward operations.
Officials are quick to point out the airport is still used by charter and private fliers and by the adjacent Youngstown Air Reserve Station. The airport has about 94,200 annual takeoffs and landings by aircraft of all types, Dulberger said.
The port authority still hopes to attract cargo airlines and additional passenger carriers, he said. It recently hired a consultant to lure companies to the facility, a move lauded by commissioners from both counties.
"The airline industry is not the same as it was 15 years ago," O'Brien said. "That doesn't change the fact that the airport remains a viable engine for economic development."
siff@vindy.com