Airport officials dispute date of notice that Allegiant is leaving in Jan.

VIENNA

Allegiant Air told a Youngtown-Warren Regional Airport official Aug. 18 that the airline planned to end service at the airport, but that fact was kept from the public and most local government leaders until Friday.

Airport Aviation Director Dan Dickten told The Vindicator he received the news last Friday from Allegiant.

He then shared that information with Western Reserve Port Authority Executive Director John Moliterno. The WRPA oversees the airport.

And for the next seven days, that’s where the news of the imminent departure of the airport’s only commercial airliner remained until today, when the Warren Tribune-Chronicle reported that Allegiant would be leaving the airport Jan. 4 because of a slowdown in service.

Aside from not informing the public, others with a direct interest in the airport were left out of the news. Two members of the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners interviewed by The Vindicator said they were not told of Allegiant’s decision last week. In 2016, Mahoning County sent $1,075,373 in hotel bed tax revenues to the WRPA.

Two members of the Trumbull County Board of Commissioners, which sends $489,389 to the WRPA in hotel bed tax revenues, also said they were not told.

When asked by The Vindicator Friday morning about the news, WRPA Executive Director John Moliterno complained that the airport and the WRPA were “blindsided” by the news.

“We were informed by the media,” he said. “There was no straightforward conversation [with Allegiant].”

But after Dickten told The Vindicator Allegiant did give him a heads-up Aug. 18 and that he indeed had shared that information, Moliterno amended his story saying that while he knew of a “simple” conversation an Allegiant representative had with Dickten, he wanted it in official writing that the airline was leaving before publicly revealing the news.

Late Friday afternoon, in a news release, Moliterno made yet another effort to explain the situation, stating Allegiant “informally notified the Authority that it plans to discontinue regular air service in early January of 2018. ... Allegiant appears to have decided to pursue a new business model for their airline that de-emphasizes smaller markets like Youngstown.”

“I can tell you they 100 percent knew well in advance of today,” Krysta Levy, Allegiant spokeswoman, said Friday. “The airport was notified the same way we would notify any airport – over the phone. There is no distinction between ‘informal’ and ‘formal.’”

Allegiant also told The Vindicator at least one airport official and one county commissioner were aware of the service ending last week.

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