$575,000 grant will be used to entice an airline to Valley

The airport received a similar grant of $250,000 in 2004.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

VIENNA —The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport $575,000, which airport authorities will give to an airline to entice it to begin service here.

Steve Bowser, director of aviation at the local airport, said he learned Friday the airport’s application for a Small Community Air Service Development Program grant had been approved.

He credited the award to work by U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio; U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th; state Sens. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-33rd, and Capri Cafaro of Hubbard, D-32nd; and letters of support from various government and private individuals.

Bowser applied for $800,000 through the program in the spring and expected to hear back by midsummer. He said he doesn’t know why the process took much longer or why the amount approved was $225,000 less, but he’s not complaining.

“The bottom line is it’s a great seed for us to meet our goal of getting regular air service for the Mahoning Valley,” he said.

The money will be used as revenue guarantee to entice a regional airline to offer daily service from the local airport to a hub such as Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Columbus or Cincinnati, Bowser said.

The airport had a similar grant in 2004 for $250,000. That money was used primarily to attract the low-cost leisure airline Allegiant Air of Las Vegas to begin offering flights two times per week to the Sanford/Orlando International Airport starting in May 2006.

Bowser said he feels fortunate the grant was approved a relatively short time after receiving the previous one. Officials had to complete the paperwork this summer to “close out” the previous grant to ensure that they would be eligible to receive a second one.

The $250,000 grant received the last time was used to provide marketing help through the Liberty company Rubenstein Associates to talk to airlines and eventually attract the attention of Allegiant.

Airport officials say they believe direct financial assistance in the form of a revenue guarantee during the airline’s initial stages of operation is the way to increase air service at the airport today, however.

Bowser has said the type of airline he hopes to attract would fly into the airport three to five times per day on a 50- to 90-seat regional jet. Among the airlines he is hopes to attract are US Airways Express, American Eagle, United Express or Delta Connection.

The last time the airport had an airline offering multiple flights per day to a hub such as Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus or Cincinnati was 2002, when Northwest Airlines provided such service.

Allegiant Air is the only airline offering regularly scheduled serve at this time, though its flights are suspended until Nov. 9 during the slower tourism season in the fall. The airline suspended its flights in early August.

When flights resume Nov. 9, they will be provided on Mondays and Fridays at 6:35 p.m. and will arrive from Florida at 6 p.m.

Bowser has said that one of the main goals of providing daily jet service to the local airport would be to attract business travelers, who make up the bulk of most airlines’ revenue stream.

A new airline could tap into a local business market that could account for as many as a half-million arriving and departing passengers annually, compared with the airport’s current number of 26,000, the airport’s grant application said.

runyan@vindy.com