If the Mahoning Valley is going to progress, it needs a strong transportation system. That is why the development of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport is important.

The airport hasn’t had a commercial airline since Allegiant Airlines left in January 2018. While better than nothing, Allegiant had a history of delays and limited service. It offered flights only on certain days and even at its height, it flew to four Southern airports.

Before Allegiant arrived in 2006, the last airline at Youngstown-Warren was the former Northwest Airlines, which flew to Detroit until it left in 2002.

After Allegiant, the Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport, agreed to have Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI) fly to Chicago O’Hare International Airport starting July 1, 2016, under its Great Lake Jet Express brand.

ADI didn’t have an interline agreement with a commercial airline that allowed the carrier to help passengers make connecting flights to other destinations without having to gather their bags or check in multiple times.

Less than two months into the deal, ADI and the WRPA parted company.

During that short time, ADI received $411,672 from a federal Small Community Air Service Development Program grant the airport obtained as well as $361,670 in local matching funds as a subsidy.

Since Allegiant left, the WRPA has been searching for another commercial airline, particularly for Florida destination flights to Tampa, Orlando and Fort Myers, said Anthony Trevena, the authority’s executive director.

It hasn’t met with success.

While still looking, the WRPA recently applied for a $500,000 SCASDP grant to help attract an airline that would fly people from Youngstown-Warren to a commercial airline hub, such as Chicago, Detroit or Newark, N.J.

Currently, most residents in the Mahoning Valley and the surrounding areas who would use the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna are driving to either Pittsburgh or Cleveland to get on a plane.

A survey done for the WRPA in 2022 showed that 44.3 percent of those who live near the local airport fly out of Pittsburgh with 39.5 percent leaving from Cleveland.

There are 7.4 percent of local people who drive about three and a half hours to fly out of Detroit, 3.3 percent who drive almost as far to fly out of Columbus and less than 3 percent take the much shorter drive to use the Akron-Canton Airport.

While Trevena said there are signs of an economic turnaround in the area, air service is greatly needed.

In the federal grant application, the WRPA wrote: “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.”

If the $500,000 grant is approved, WRPA and others have committed to matching that dollar amount and the airport would waive $312,000 in operating fees for two years and spend $100,000 on marketing the service.

The airport and nearby Youngstown Air Reserve Station, or YARS, have received positive news as of late.

First, state Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Lenox, was able to convince her Republican colleagues to restore a $3 million allocation in the state budget for the airport.

The money would be used as a local 10 percent match to access federal dollars for resurfacing improvements to the main runway and then to the main taxiway.

The House version of the budget included the $3 million, but Republican senators took out all one-time airport funding from its proposal until O’Brien advocated for Youngstown-Warren.

The improvement work is needed primarily because YARS, the largest employer in Trumbull County, uses the airport.

YARS is getting eight new C-130J Super Hercules aircrafts, which cost about $1 billion in total.

Also, the U.S. House and Senate members who represent the Valley are working to get Youngstown-Warren designated as a “primary airport.” A similar effort was unsuccessful last year.

The designation would make the airport available for additional federal funding.

A House committee last week voted to include that legislation in the bill to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration and aviation safety and infrastructure programs.

dskolnick@vindy.com