Valley must commit to make daily air service a success

The takeoff this spring of daily commercial airline service to and from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport for the first time in 14 years proves the power of perseverance.

A turbulent and nearly two-year-long campaign to secure such service ended successfully last week when the U.S. Department of Transportation officially cleared Aerodynamics Inc. for landing at the Vienna Township airport. It deemed ADI “fit, willing and able” to commence daily nonstop service to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

We congratulate Dan Dickten, the airport’s director of aviation, members of the Western Reserve Port Authority that oversees the airport and other community groups and individuals who played roles in securing the service and the myriad side benefits that likely will accompany it.

But their work is hardly finished. That same stick-to-it spirit will be needed in equally strong doses in coming months to ensure ADI launches here without a glitch.

A PROTRACTED STRUGGLE

Securing this daily service, the first since the last major airliner abandoned the airport in 2002, was no mean feat. Although some half-hearted attempts at establishing daily flights emerged in the years immediately after United’s exodus, the movement failed to gain much momentum until Allegiant Airlines launched service to tourist destinations from Youngstown-Warren in 2006. Since then, Allegiant has ridden a wave of success, lifting passenger levels at the local airport from a feeble 10,000 or fewer to new heights well above 100,000 last year.

Airport officials used that success as a marketing tool to attract potential daily carriers. Three years ago, a massive community campaign to lure United Airlines inflated many hopes, but those hopes ultimately went bust. Yet instead of accepting defeat, airport leaders stayed hot on the chase, eventually attracting the attention of Atlanta-based ADI.

That effort, too, was riddled with many bumps along the way, most of which stemmed from leadership and debt disputes the airline encountered under new ownership. Last summer, we even lamented that the deal looked dead. In the ensuing months, however, the disputes were settled and the debts paid to put the airline on terra firma for takeoff.

MUCH WORK LIES AHEAD

Of course, acquiring the service is but a first step. The onus on the airport, ADI and the community must now be to guarantee its success. Toward that end, airport officials and ADI have a full plate of tasks that must be accomplished thoughtfully, thoroughly and as expeditiously as possible. Among them:

ADI must act with all due speed to submit to the DOT a litany of documentation of its air-carrier certificates, insurance coverage, ownership statements and a pre start-up financial report.

Officials at the airport, known as YNG in the air-travel community, must negotiate final plans on schedules and fares. We urge YNG leaders to press hard for convenient takeoff and landing times and for airfares comparable to those at larger hub airports in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Akron-Canton.

Agreements need to be reached with other major carriers to ensure that passengers from YNG to Chicago can make direct hassle-free connections onto larger airlines to reach their final destinations.

Airport leaders and others in the community must craft a heavy promotional campaign well ahead of the start-up date to give ADI a clear shot at successful full-load planes during its critical first few weeks of operations. The Valley must prove to ADI that its service is wanted, needed and can easily become self-sustaining.

Those and other preliminary tasks will be critical to the future viability of the airport and to latching onto the wide array of fringe benefits daily service can beckon.

First and foremost would be the enhancement of the image of YNG as a viable and convenient point of departure for hundreds of thousands of potential fliers in Greater Youngstown.

Daily service also can serve as a catalyst for diversified economic development. Some potential business deals and projects have faltered here because the region lacked a reliable and consistent airline service in and out of the community.

Psychologically, daily service from the Valley to the nation’s third-busiest airport lifts us into the league of world-accessible and world-class metro areas.

Of course, before any of those hopes can become realities, much hard work lies ahead. Businesses and individuals can prepare for landing those assets by making a concerted commitment to ADI to ensure it soars in the Valley from its very first departure to Chicagoland.