36 passengers head to Chicago today on first flight from Youngstown

CHICAGO

A rainy morning greeted the 36 passengers getting aboard the first Great Lakes Jet Express Embraer ERJ-145 flight from Youngstown to Chicago today.

Within minutes after check-in and a quick walk through security, everyone was ready to go.

Those who worked to get a daily scheduled service from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna to Chicago O’Hare International Airport have been ready for a while.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Mickey Bowman, chief operating officer of Aerodynamics Inc., the company bringing the service in partnership with Great Lakes Airlines. “Two years of work and today we are delighted that we are almost ready to board our first flight to Chicago. I want to thank everyone. Hopefully the community is as excited as we are.”

Bowman welcomed everyone as they passed through the gate to board the first flight that was scheduled to take off at 8:55 a.m.

While passengers got settled into comfortable blue seats, placed bags in overhead bins and under the seat in front of them, the flight attendants also welcomed everyone and made some safety announcements before takeoff.

One of the two pilots announced a weight-balance problem led to a slight delay in takeoff. Most of the passengers did not bring luggage, which threw the weight off. After some adjustments, including shifting some passengers to the back of the plane,  the inaugural flight was ready.

Read more about the flight in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.