More flights planned for Youngstown-Warren Regional

YOUNGSTOWN — Commercial flights will again take off from Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and, in the coming months, in greater numbers than have been seen for quite some time.

Allegiant Air, a low-cost leisure carrier based in Las Vegas, has been flying out of the local airport to Sanford, Fla., two times a week for the last 2 1‚Ñ2 years, but routinely stops flights once a year, said Bill Taylor, commercial ground services manager for Winner Aviation.

“Every fall [Allegiant Air] takes a little hiatus, if you will, because of the hurricane season in Florida, and [with] people returning to school the demand just kind of drops off,” he said.

Allegiant flights between Youngstown and Sanford will resume Nov. 17 with the same schedule seen previously on Mondays and Fridays of each week.

Taylor said Allegiant will make a few changes in 2009 with additional flights in April. He said the airline will add five additional flights on Thursday and Friday, and on Sundays and Mondays between April 2 and April 17.

“These additional flights are basically for spring break,” he said. “We are going to get the word our to these kids to fly out of Youngstown to Florida and fill these planes up. Hopefully, if we can do that, they may consider more traffic out of this airport.”

Taylor made another announcement to members of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport, at a meeting today. He told the board there likely would be even more traffic at the airport over the next two years.

For the complete story, see Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.