Getting airborne isn't easy

Too often in the past, the Mahoning Valley has looked for the big, magic bullet to solve its problems.
The first reaction after the re-entrenchment of the steel industry here a generation ago was to find someone else to run the mills. Then it was a search for a giant replacement industry.
Alas, those quick, easy and big solutions were not to be. In recent years, the accent has shifted to doing what can be done to keep what we have and attract new small tenants to the existing industrial facilities or new industrial parks.
The story of the decline of the Youngstown Municipal Airport was not much different. As big carriers abandoned the airport, time, money and energy were expended in futile efforts to find big replacements.
Again, the accent has necessarily shifted, and efforts are being made to attract airline service providers that fill natural niches.
A first step
Last week, Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air announced it was instituting a limited number of low-cost flights from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to the Orlando, Fla., area. These will be the first scheduled flights from Youngstown-Warren since the summer of 2004.
Recent years have not been kind to Youngstown-Warren, which has had difficulty attracting new servers to the airport. At the same time, the Akron-Canton airport has blossomed.
But that community made an enormous investment in the airport, recognizing that money must be spent to attract airlines and support services to a site.
Meanwhile Youngstown-Warren has struggled to get enough from the boards of commissioners of Mahoning and Trumbull counties just to keep the doors open.
That was an important investment because maintaining Youngstown-Warren as a functioning airport is vital to keeping the adjacent air base here.
If Allegiant is a success, the likelihood of attracting other carriers and rebuilding business at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport will improve.