JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — With fewer people coming and going, it's been touch and go in recent years for some local airports.
And while it’s a gateway to the world from your own backyard, it's been tough bringing passengers through gates at the John Murtha Johnstown Cambria County Airport. And that had put the airport at risk of losing its Essential Air Service federal subsidy to keep commercial flights on the runway.
“In the 2018 first quarter we were one of the lowest of the feeders to Pittsburgh,” said Jim Loncella, Chairman of the Johnstown Cambria County Airport Authority, referring to the eight-airport alliance of EAS-funded flights known as The PIT Connector.
Last year the airport made what looked like a last gasp effort to keep flights in Johnstown by switching from Southern Airways to Boutique Air to fly flights from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. All the others in the Connector alliance stuck with Southern.
“When we made the decision, we were on an island alone,” Loncella said. “We simply weren't happy with the service and we thought someone could do better.
Different planes, and what the airport says has been better service, has caused ridership numbers to take off.
Loncella said in the first quarter of 2019, enplanements jumped more than 75 percent from the first quarter of 2018 to over 2,300. That, he said, is also the highest levels at Johnstown in nearly a decade, when carriers affiliated with major airlines landed here.
“That’s the highest number heading to Pittsburgh,” Loncella said. “We have kind of gone from worst to first.”
With demand high, Boutique is adding five more weekend flights each week starting Saturday and continuing over the next three months. These flights, that will serve as a test run to see if they can be sustained permanently, aren't covered by the federal subsidy.
“The extra flights came as a surprise to us,” Loncella said. “It's basically on their nickel because the demand is there and it makes business sense."
Altoona Blair County Airport and DuBois Regional Airport were also at risk of losing their EAS funding. While numbers have gone up at those airports as well, they have not been nearly as dramatic as in Johnstown and enplanements aren't enough to keep the airports below the EAS threshold requiring amounts per passenger to be under $200.
“We're not at the $200 yet but it is continuing to drop and that's good for us,” said Tracy Plessinger, Manager of Altoona Blair County Airport. “Southern has been here for four-and-a-half years and they are growing and continues to improve their service.”
But those behind EAS have made it easier though for airports not meeting that demand.
“As it stands now for the next five years, as long as airports are making progress then they aren't in danger of losing EAS service because DOT acknowledges that the subsidy cost is coming down,” Plessinger said.
Both Altoona and DuBois are improving and surpassing the minimum of 10 enplanements per day.
“The community is responding well,” Plessinger said. “It's important because as long as we can keep progressing we are not in danger of losing EAS service.”
Back in Johnstown the trial run of additional flights taking off, the airport says the sky is now the limit.
“We were criticized (over the decision to use Boutique),” Loncella said. “It’s always been a dream for us to get back to those levels and someday get away from the federal subsidy.
According to the Congressional Research Service, a total of 174 communities received subsidized EAS service, at a cost of $288 million. The Altoona subsidy costs about $2.3 million, the Johnstown and DuBois subsidy is about $2.9 million.
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