VIENNA — The Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport applied for a $500,000 federal grant to help lure an airline that would fly to commercial airline hubs.

The Western Reserve Port Authority submitted an application for a Small Community Air Service Development Program grant.

It is seeking the money to help establish at least six weekly flights that carry about 30 passengers between the airport in Vienna and a network carrier hub airport in larger cities providing interline connectivity with a major airline.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport is the preferred destination, according to the application, but Anthony Trevena, WRPA executive director, also mentioned Detroit and Newark, N.J.

With a population of 637,964 residents, the Youngstown-Warren combined statistical area is the largest market in the country without passenger air service, according to the grant application.

“One issue is we’re situated between two major markets,” Trevena said in reference to Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh gets 44.3 percent of the air travel business from those in this area with Cleveland getting 39.5 percent, according to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s most recent survey in 2022.

PASSENGERS

The grant application said Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport would be the main airport for 838,440 people if it had passenger air service as that would include Meadville, Pa., as well as the area along the Interstate 90 corridor adjacent to Lake Erie, including Ashtabula.

There are more than 578,000 annual passenger aircraft boardings from the market, according to the airport’s application.

The area provides an affordable cost of living and “signs of meaningful economic recovery have emerged,” according to the application.

It added: “A significant and substantial missing piece to this recovery is the availability of passenger air service to the market. While new economic activity and interest in corporate investment in the market is flourishing, the market’s primary pushback is a lack of connectivity to the U.S. passenger air travel system.”

The WRPA expects to hear by August on whether the grant is approved, Trevena said.

“It all depends on how competitive the grant application is,” he said. “If we’re not successful, we’ll reapply next year.”

JobsOhio, WRPA and Youngstown-Warren Development Partners would commit $500,000 in matching funds if the grant is approved over a two-year period. JobsOhio would provide $250,000 with WRPA giving $150,000 and Youngstown-Warren Development Partners, a private economic development corporation, providing $100,000.

In addition, the airport would waive $312,000 in operating fees including landing fees and terminal rent for two years and provide $100,000 to a marketing agency for the promotion of the service.

“We would use the money as a revenue guarantee for an airline to come here,” Trevena said. “It’s a subsidy. If they’re successful, they wouldn’t need as much of the grant. The amount we’d give depends on the success of the airline. We would continue to market to regional airlines.”

PAST GRANTS

The airport has received money from this grant program three previous times.

In 2004, it received $250,000 to support an 18-month program to support Allegiant Airlines service to Orlando-Sanford International Airport. Allegiant expanded its service at the local airport until shutting down in January 2018.

The airport is continuing to look for commercial airlines to have destination flights to Tampa, Orlando and Fort Myers in Florida, Trevena said.

“We’ve never stopped working toward getting air service back,” he said. “There’s a pilot shortage. We’ve had meetings with different airlines.”

The airport received $575,000 in 2007 to support regional jet service to a connecting hub airport, but was unable to attract one with the recent grant application stating it was because of the national recession. That money was never spent.

It received $780,000 in 2012 to establish regularly scheduled commercial air service to a hub of a major airline with $420,000 in local cash contributions. That attracted Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI), which operated regional jet service to Chicago O’Hare under the Great Lakes Jet Express brand in 2016.

The ADI service was terminated after less than two months because the airline didn’t have an interline agreement with American Airlines and United Airlines. An interline agreement means the carrier would help passengers traveling from Vienna to Chicago making connecting flights from O’Hare to other destinations without having to gather their bags or check in multiple times.

During that short time, ADI was given $411,672 from the grant and $361,670 in local matching funds.

The remaining grant money was returned to the federal government last year, Trevena said.

The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted last week to make the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport a “primary airport,” which, if approved by the full Congress, would make it eligible for additional federal funding.

Also, the Ohio Senate voted last week to provide $3 million in the state budget for the airport to use as a local match to access federal funds for resurfacing improvements. The state House already had approved the $3 million allocation.

dskolnick@vindy.com