A rededication to service, convenience of the airport

Seventy-five years ago last Friday, thousands converged on the Mahoning Valley’s brand-spanking new $2.6 million commercial airport to celebrate its opening and dedication.

William Stout, designer of the famous Ford Trimotor plane, served as the principal speaker at the grand event at Youngstown Municipal Airport, and about 1,000 letters bearing special air-mail cachet letters aboard the flight commemorated the historic dedication.

Over the ensuing 71/2 decades, the airport has undergone massive change, including its transition from a city- administered facility to one operated by a two-county regional port authority. Today’s Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport indeed has weathered its fair share of ups and downs from its boom times in the 1960s to its bust days of the early 2000s when not a single commercial airliner flew in or out of the lethargic terminal.

Against that backdrop, the YNG Airport made history again this July 1 on the diamond anniversary of the facility’s dedication. Last Friday, the first daily-service commercial flight in 14 years took off from its Vienna Township runway.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Mickey Bowman, chief operating officer of Aerodynamics Inc., the company that brought the service in partnership with Great Lakes Express Airlines, as he boarded the successful first flight to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

He added, “I want to thank everyone. Hopefully, the community is as excited as we are.”

Count us in on the excitement the new daily service generates. We also again strongly encourage individuals and businesses throughout the Valley also to join the excitement and promise of the expansion by rededicating themselves to the airport and the success of the new service.

We have long touted the potential benefits of making it a more-viable player in the global air-traffic market. In a nutshell, those perks include upgrading the image and status at YNG, providing greater convenience for hundreds of thousands of air travelers and acting as a catalyst for intensified economic development in our region.

CONVENIENCE SETS YNG APART

To be sure, one of the strongest assets of the new service providing 10 daily flights to the nation’s third-largest airport is convenience.

But don’t just take our word for it. Consider these testimonials from passengers aboard the Great Lakes Express inaugural flight.

Mark and Melissa Crissman of Newton Falls said they found the least- expensive flight to Chicago was offered by ADI. They also raved about the ease of access and processing. “It went much smoother than other larger airports. It was three minutes instead of three hours,” Melissa said.

Joe and Veronica Viola of Champion said the handy service spared them much time and toil in driving eight hours to the Windy City. In Veronica’s words: “It feels great to be a part of something historical.”

Trumbull County Commissioner Dan Polivka, also aboard that first flight, expressed similar satisfaction: “It was a very smooth flight and a nice destination. ... We hope it will boost our airport and our economy.”

Those early positive critiques justify the grueling two-year-long process to restore daily service to the airport. At times, the struggle became so turbulent that its very launch appeared to be threatened.

But now that the service is up and running, it is up to Valley residents and businesses to make it succeed for the long term. Its success, after all, could lead to the attraction of additional airliners and added convenience for business and pleasure travelers.

So far, the service is off to a relatively slow but nonetheless respectable start, but it’s absolutely necessary for ADI to broaden its customer base as quickly as possible. In its first four days of service, the YNG to O’Hare flights operated at only 38 percent capacity.

But as Dan Dickten, director of aviation at the regional airport, said, “These startups always lose money in the beginning.”

As word spreads that ADI is finally off the ground and as the buzz broadens about its convenience, we’re hoping that Friday’s historic day at the airport ushers in an exciting new era of growth and vitality at YNG.