Airport hit mark to get $1M FAA funding

VIENNA — The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s director of aviation hopes for a good financial year in 2007 and beyond, based on the number of passengers taking flights in 2006 and discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration about funding.

Steve Bowser said he will not know for a while how many passengers used the airport’s new carrier, Allegiant Air, during 2006 — but he is certain that the airport exceeded an important 10,000-passenger milestone this year that entitles the facility to $1 million in FAA funding for improvements in 2008.

The airport received only $150,000 in Airport Improvement Program money this year and will get the same in 2007 based on the number of flights departing the airport in 2004 and 2005, when the airport had no regularly scheduled airline.

Bowser said the last numbers he saw from November of this year showed that about 12,000 passengers flew on Allegiant Air to Sanford, Fla., or on one of the airport’s charter flights to Atlantic City.

The airport only qualifies for the $1 million because of the Allegiant flights, Bowser said, because only Allegiant’s flights are regularly scheduled — which is one of the requirements for the FAA money. Allegiant began offering flights two times per week to Florida starting May 19 and has continued since then except for a break in service during September, which is traditionally a slow month for air service to Florida, officials said.

Just as important, Bowser said discussions with the FAA have indicated that discretionary funding will also likely come the airport’s way in 2007. That's so the airport can continue to complete the perimeter fencing project it’s been working on through 2006. The improved fencing is a safety issue, Bowser said, because it keeps wildlife off of the runways.

The airport’s consultants, R.W. Armstrong of Cleveland, have advised that the project is about half-finished and that another 20,000 feet of fencing needs to be completed in 2007 at a cost of about $2 million.

Bowser said the FAA is eager to see that project completed as soon as possible and appears to be ready to provide discretionary funding to pay for it.

“That’s a high-priority item, nationwide,” Bowser said of safety improvements at airports.

The $1 million will be available as early as next October, Bowser said, because that is when the FAA’s 2008 fiscal year begins.

Airport officials have said that a project with the potential to cause growth at the airport, the development of “T-hangars” to house privately owned aircraft, will have to wait until 2008. That’s because FAA funding to build taxiways to serve the T-hangars will not be available until 2008 because of the fencing project.

Bowser said the Western Reserve Port Authority, which oversees airport operations, will consider alternative funding sources in 2007, such as bond funding or conventional borrowing, as a way to get the T-hangar project and renovation of current hangars moving.

The airport doesn’t currently   have any outstanding long-term debt and has $100 million in assets, he said. It can afford to borrow money if such a move would create infrastructure improvements that would promote growth, he said.

“We have to start looking to the future,” Bowser said.

"Development of the airport in the future depends on the T-hangars — something that could pay off 10 to 15 years from now.”