Quote of the Year
Joseph Maxin, port authority chairman, vented his frustration at the fence project tying up discretionary funds that could be used for infrastructure improvements. “This is so frustrating. All the money is going into that damn fence,” he said.
Thank You Atty. Maxin; that is EXACTLY what I want to hear from the leader of the Port!
Why does the Port run the Airport?
I pose this question because the airport is by far the largest thing in the Mahoning Valley which they manage; but you never would’ve known had you read the papers this morning. Yesterday was the monthly Port Authority meeting and the big topic of agenda was about the Airlines; well not exactly. The big topic on the agenda was a $45 million dollar DUMP, WASTELAND, SHITHOLE to be put out here in Mahoning County.
This got me thinking reading 3 articles in 3 separate papers this morning regarding the Port Meeting; why on earth do they manage this airport if they do not talk about it at their own meetings! Yes, in some small business at the meeting, they brought up the release of bids with a budget of $900,000 for more new perimeter fencing around the airport; but no mention of Allegiant, no mention of any new airlines, and no mention of quite frankly anything an AVERAGE Airport board would talk about!
Do they realize come August 6th, Allegiant will be flying ZERO FLIGHTS FROM THEN UNTIL THE END OF OCTOBER! Two and a half MONTHS! Do they even care! I’m serious! Are they trying AT ALL to get additional flights with Allegiant, or are they satisfied with the pathetic 2 flights a week to Orlando, because quite frankly, they have done NOTHING at ALL to make me or any other taxpayer think otherwise! Steve Bowser—-Either you or someone better stand up and tell this port your concerns and what you want and what it will take to get more flights out at that place, because we have no chance of surviving or making any money with these 2 measly flights.
PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS, BECAUSE I KNOW I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!
YNG
I am officially on Airliners.net
The YNG Airport finally has some representation on the best aviation forums on the net, those are the Civil Aviation Forums of Airliners.net. YNGguins is the name and I have immediately brought up YNG in a number of my posts. I am not going to do that in all my posts, but I will try to keep us a topic of discussion; esp. if we are awared the SCASD grant, which could be announced within the next few weeks.
Back from the Long Break!
Once again I am sorry that I haven’t posted on here and so long, but I finally think I can get back to posting 3-4 times a week, now that I have finished the Youngstown State Fan Site: PENGUIN-ZONE; which I do encourage you guys to join! Now let’s get to some aviation folks!
In a recent article in a Roanoke newspaper; Roanoke Airport officials and Allegiant Air’s Tyri Squyres were quoted saying that Allegiant is looking at a new gulf coast city as a focus city. In a Rockford article from this past week, Squyres and RFD officials stated that Allegiant is looking for a 4th destination city to start in 2007. This blog will go out on a limp and predict Allegiant to begin service out in Ft. Myers; a market in which they have had negotiations with for over 2 years, but are holding back from due to the higher gate fees which they don’t have at SFB or PIE.
In other aviation news, Skybus Airlines continues to expand and according to trip reports on airliners.net; has impressed many of its customers. Skybus hasn’t had many major issues such as flight cancellations or plane troubles; and overall has done a solid job in its first month of operations. They are a new style carrier in the USA, but who could beat $10 dollar fares?
The day Skybus begins flying to other cities besides CMH, is the day YNG MUST make a big impression for Skybus! We can’t wait 12 months to get daily flights out of YNG, we need more than just 2 flights a week to Orlando, we need flights 5 days a week to Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles!
YNG–I am going to begin updating the passenger data!
Frontpage Coverage for Youngstown-Warren
Today, the Vindicator decided to do a story on “Contrasting the Success” of the Akron-Canton Regional Airport to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. The story is huge taking up over 4 columns with interviews with YNG AD Steve Bowser, Chuck Johnson; as well as CAK AD Fred Krum, and Kristie Van Auken. They all give their take on the current state of each airport; and its downfall in the deregulation of the airlines back in the 1980s.
Tyri Squyres of Allegiant Air is also quoted on saying that Youngstown is a “good market for Allegiant,” flying 23,000 passengers in its first year [May06-May07]; but it’s not good enough to support service to Las Vegas or Tampa. She also said they will be suspending flights a second straight year from August until November; which is understandable.
The bottom line for YNG to have a chance of surviving in the next 5 years; is for YNG to receive the $800,000 SCASD grant from the Dept. of Transportation. This grant would be used to entice a regional airline to flying 3-5 daily flights on a 50 seat regional jet to a hub in Chicago, Cincinnati, or Charlotte. It is expected that this regional airline would fly between 50,000-60,000 passengers a year. If awarded the grant, it would take YNG about 6 months to begin preliminary talks with a carrier; before finalizing plans for service in the summer of 2008.
LINK: http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/289034555741723.php
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