REGIONAL AIRPORT Flights will mean new jobs in area

Vienna Township trustees will hire more police to guard the airport.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- More than a dozen people will owe new, part-time jobs to the return of scheduled flights from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.
On Thursday, Vacation Express of Atlanta will offer the first flight to Orlando, Fla., from the airport. Flights will take off four days a week to Orlando and, starting Saturday, twice weekly to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
This is the first regularly scheduled service from the local airport since Northwest Airlines pulled out in October 2002.
The company does not plan to hire any local employees, officials say. However, the pace has already quickened at the once-sleepy local airport to accommodate the flights.
Phone calls
"The phones have been ringing off the hook" said airport director Steve Bowser.
Earlier this month, the Western Reserve Port Authority, which runs the airport, hired a second part-time receptionist to ease the burden of constant phone calls inquiring about the flights, Bowser said.
The airport does not sell tickets. However, just giving callers Vacation Express' phone number has been tying up the lines.
The company has sold about 10,000 one-way tickets to and from Sanford Airport, outside Orlando, and about 3,500 to Myrtle Beach, said company spokesman Ron Slotin. Tickets starting at $69 one-way are being booked through the end of the year.
The company has contracted with Winner Aviation, which also provides services for charters from the airport, to handle baggage for flights and take tickets, said company president and CEO Rick Hale. Winner will also maintain planes during their turn-around at the airport.
He said Winner has hired six part-time workers and re-assigned a full-timer to handle the job.
"We are staffed up and ready to go," Hale said.
Both the Vienna Police Department and the Transportation Safety Administration have also beefed up staff for airport security around the new flights.
On Monday, Vienna Township trustees expect to hire five or six part-time officers to work guarding the airport when flights are scheduled, Trustee Mark Finamore said. The port authority pays the township $25 an hour to send the officers out, he said.
Screeners
Earlier this month, the TSA advertised to hire four to six additional part-time screeners to work at the Vienna airport, under the direction of the agency's Cleveland field office.
The TSA employees will be at the airport when flights arrive and depart, and will make between $11.30 and $16.93 an hour, an agency spokeswoman said.
siff@vindy.com