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Aviation-maintenance school to invest $1.4 million at Youngstown-Warren airport
By Ed Runyan
vienna
The Western Reserve Port Authority has authorized Dan Dickten, director of aviation, to work out the sale of Hangar 3 at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to the aviation maintenance school that uses the hangar.
Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics plans to purchase the building for $285,000 and invest another $1.1 million to create a two-story office and classroom area on the front and improve existing space.
A new lease for the land under the building also will have to be negotiated, Dickten said. PIA began offering classes here in August 2006.
Gary Hoyle, director of campus operations for PIA, said the school started with about 20 students in its 16-month training program and has had as many as 95 students at a time, so it needs more space.
The company had initially hoped to build a new facility on airport property, but airport officials were unable to get approval to use the land they wanted, Hoyle said. To invest $1.1 million, PIA felt it needed to own the building, he said.
In other business, the airport reached a new nine-year high for passengers in a month with 19,422 in July. That was achieved on 65 flights, 63 of them on Allegiant Air and two casino junkets on a smaller airline.
The previous high was June 2014, when there were 18,165 passengers on 61 flights, 57 by Allegiant, four were casino junkets on a smaller airline.
The airport had 17,978 passengers in July 2014 on 59 flights – 55 by Allegiant, four were casino junkets on a smaller airline.
Dickten said competition from Allegiant offering additional leisure flights at other nearby airports has hurt parking revenue and slowed the growth of passenger numbers at the airport.
But the airport still registered about 4,000 more passengers in 2015 so far than in 2014.
The board also approved a new vision statement – advance aviation and foster community and economic development – and a new mission statement: The mission of the Western Reserve Port Authority is to maintain and continue to develop the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport; promote financing and economic development activities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties with primary focus on job creation.
The statements are part of the authority’s strategic-planning process.
Also on Wednesday, Las Vegas-based Allegiant reached an agreement to purchase its 50th airbus aircraft, an A320, from Airbus Financial Services.
By the end of 2015, the company’s in-service airbus fleet will number 25, consisting of 15 A320s and 10 A319s.
The remaining 25 committed airbus aircraft will be delivered through 2018.
The aircraft announced today will enter revenue service in early 2016.
Allegiant anticipates adding further aircraft commitments in the future.
At the end of this year, Allegiant will have 82 aircraft in revenue service.