Aviation director asks feds for approval of daily flights to Chicago

Staff report

VIENNA

The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport has requested that federal regulators approve certification to start daily airline services to Chicago before the end of the year.

In a letter posted on the U.S. Department of Transportation website Monday, Dan Dickten, director of aviation for the airport, has requested that the department approve the fitness and interstate air service certification for Aerodynamics Inc. by the end of July.

“ADI has responded in a positive and timely manner to meet all requests and requirements of the DOT. Approvals by the end of July would make daily service available on or slightly before Oct. 1, 2015,” he said.

Dickten added that further delays may jeopardize the success of this air service because start-ups in the winter months are more difficult to sustain.

The Western Reserve Port Authority committed $130,000 to ADI that the airline can use before the launch of the service. ADI also would use a $1.2 million revenue guarantee offered by the port authority to ensure it makes a profit of at least 5 percent during the start- up phase of the service. On July 14, the sale of Aerodynamics Inc. to ADI Acquisition Co., which runs SeaPort Airlines, closed. The certificate would allow the company to begin daily flights between the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport 10 times per week in a 50-passenger aircraft.

SeaPort is a regional airline based in Portland, Ore., that flies regional routes on the West Coast and in the Southeast and Central Southeast United States.

Allegiant, a Las Vegas-based airline, is the only major commercial airline in operation at the airport in Vienna. Service includes flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Tampa, Orlando and Fort Myers, Fla.

ADI first applied for a certificate to operate the Youngstown-Chicago service in June 2014, but the service hit a roadblock when the DOT learned of a finding by a federal judge that former ADI majority owner Scott Beale committed fraud while soliciting investment funds from a former business partner in 2012.

Beale resigned as CEO, president and chairman of ADI and its parent companies in January, and Darrell Richardson, an industry veteran, took over.