Ohio Congressman Ryan On YNG’s Future

One Response to “Ohio Congressman Ryan On YNG’s Future”

1. KarlB737 on November 24th, 2007 6:07 pm

   Courtesy: Business Journal

   Officials Discuss Airport’s Flight Plan
   Nov. 21, 2007 7:20 a.m.
   By George Nelson

   VIENNA, Ohio – Local officials agree that the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport is an asset to the Mahoning Valley, and the direction the airport should take was the topic Tuesday for what is expected to be just the first of a series of meetings.

   U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, convened the meeting at the regional airport. Those attending included the mayors of Youngstown and Warren, county commissioners, representatives of the state General Assembly, airport staff and members of the Western Reserve Port Authority, which oversees the airport’s operations.

   The airport is “a great gem of our community,” but “we’ve struggled to make it work,” Ryan explained. All were in agreement “that we need to be on the same page,” he said, but resources are limited.

   “What we need to do is sit down and focus on a mission here,” Ryan said.

   Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said that “chief attributes” of the airport were identified that could make it “even more viable and successful.”

   The port authority and airport managers have worked in recent years to develop its potential as an educational center. A branch campus of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics located at the airport in 2006, and efforts are under way to lure a satellite campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

   The port authority’s chairman, local attorney and pilot Joseph Maxin, described the state of the airport as “very positive” but added that it “needs a jumpstart.” He said he wants to see the airport develop to be “self-sufficient” – able to operate without the annual subsidies provided by Mahoning and Trumbull counties – and he believes the airport needs to continue to pursue other commercial airlines.

   The airport recently received a $575,000 federal grant to be used to attract and subsidize initial local operations for a carrier primarily catering to the business market.

   An Ohio Department of Transportation study cited by the airport’s director of aviation, Steve Bowser, identified access to air travel as the fourth most important reason why a business stays at or locates to a specific site. Though the airport applied for the grant in April, Bowser said, the need for business-specific service was punctuated this fall by RTI International Metals’ announcement it planned to relocate from Niles to Pittsburgh. Company officials cited access to a major airport as one of the factors driving the move.

   Additionally, having such service would also help take care of access for leisure passengers as well, Bowser noted. Allegiant Air, which flies twice weekly to Orlando, is the airport’s only regularly scheduled carrier.

   Maxin reiterated concerns over the tax structure in Ohio that encourages maintenance work to be done outside the state, hurting the airport’s current fixed-based operator, Winner Aviation, or any other FBO that would potentially locate there.

   The group will probably meet again in a few months, Ryan said.

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