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More details on Great Lakes service ending expected in the future
By Kalea Hall
VIENNA
There wasn’t much said after the Western Reserve Port Authority board ended a two-hour executive session Friday.
The special board meeting to “confer with counsel regarding imminent litigation” was called for Tuesday after the board ended its funding to the Great Lakes JetExpress Youngstown/Chicago service.
Aerodynamics Inc., the airline that operated the service, abruptly brought it to an end after a Wednesday evening flight landed.
“The board is exploring all of its options ... as we proceed in conversations with [ADI],” said John Moliterno, port authority executive director. “We certainly apologize to anyone in the Valley who was hurt by this situation.”
At the Aug. 17 WRPA board meeting, the board announced it would stop providing funds to the service from a $1.2 million revenue guarantee – $780,000 of that comes from federal grant funding and $420,000 comes from the local hotel-bed tax fund and other sources.
The port authority has paid $361,714 to subsidize the start-up service. The DOT will reimburse the airport 65 percent of that amount from the federal grant.
Friday’s meeting was to update the board members, who are volunteers, Moliterno said.
For now, there was no decision made to take legal action against ADI, and ADI has not taken any legal action against the WRPA, Moliterno said Friday.
A representative from ADI could not be reached to comment Friday.
A few hours after the service ended Wednesday, ADI sent out a news release that read: “ADI had hoped to negotiate an orderly discontinuation of service, but unfortunately has been unable to come to terms with the Western Reserve Port Authority Board. The reluctance of the WRPA Board to come to a reasonable ceasing of operations and services leaves ADI with no option other than to discontinue air service immediately.”
The atmosphere at the airport Friday morning was a stark contrast to what it was July 1 when excitement filled the terminal for the launch of flights from Youngstown to the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. It was the first time in 14 years the local airport had a daily scheduled service.
The Great Lakes JetExpress service took two years to receive approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve because of concerns over ADI’s former leadership.
“There wasn’t a member of our board going back a year that wasn’t excited to have a flight to Chicago,” Moliterno said. “Everyone wanted it to be successful.”
The first month of flights failed to meet expectations.
Passengers did not fill the 49-seat Embraer ERJ-145 jet. On average, seats were 31 percent filled in July. The hope was to have them at least 45 percent filled.
A major impact on the ticket sales was a lacking interline agreement between ADI and United Airlines. ADI was using the interline agreement Great Lakes Airlines had to connect with major carriers, but United pulled the Youngstown/Chicago tickets from its website because it did not have an interline agreement specifically with ADI.
Passengers with reservations on flights from Youngstown and Chicago should call the Great Lakes Airlines reservations line at 1-800-554-5111 or email refunds@flygreatlakes.com to process refunds.
ADI said passengers “will not be penalized for the termination of service.”