Businesses and individuals to be asked about daily air service from local airport

Staff report

VIENNA

Representatives with the Western Reserve Port Authority and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber will be contacting local businesses and individuals to measure interest and support for potential daily United Airlines service at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

Information obtained in the coming weeks will help quantify the demand for air service that United might begin offering.

United representatives met Monday in Chicago with Dan Dickten, airport director; Tom Reich, the airport’s air service consultant; Sarah Boyarko, of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; and George Brown, with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman’s office.

They discussed the possibility of United starting daily service through its United Express subsidiary to its hub at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, which would provide a wide range of connecting options beyond the hub.

“Before committing to such an investment, United Airlines needs to gain an understanding of local demand for the service,” Dickten said in a press release. “That review process is now under way” and will include the surveys.

Reich had predicted three years ago that Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland would lose hub status, meaning United would no longer use the airport to connect passengers to airports around the world.

In February, United made that announcement, saying it would reduce its daily flights in Cleveland from 199 to 72 by June.

Reich said last month that he and local officials would have to wait and see whether the change in Cleveland would provide an opportunity for the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to receive more United flights.

He said the loss of the Cleveland hub takes away one of the biggest arguments the airlines have made in the past for why they wouldn’t give Youngstown-Warren daily flights to a hub airport in Detroit, Washington, D.C., or Chicago.

“Now we can say people in the Mahoning Valley are going to be less likely to drive to Cleveland six months from now than they are today,” Reich said.

“As we continue to have conversations with these carriers, we’re hoping that in the next six months to a year, we have an announcement to make,” Reich said.