A. Robert Tierney is tired of paying high taxi fares to get to and from airports, and he's betting that there are a lot of south-central Kentucky residents who feel the same way.
Earlier this month, Tierney, a resident of Eubank, started Kentucky Sky Shuttle to transport people in the Somerset, Stanford and Danville areas to and from Lexington's Blue Grass Airport. He plans to add Nicholasville to the shuttle company's list of stops in the near future.
It's the only service of its kind serving Blue Grass Airport, airport spokesman Tom Tyra said.
"If you get tired of something, do something about it," Tierney said.
Taking a taxi from Somerset to Blue Grass Airport is about $150, and from Danville to the Lexington airport is about $120, Tierney said.
"Our fare from Somerset is $40 one way, or $75 round trip," Tierney said. From Stanford or Danville to the airport is $35, or $65 round-trip.
"You can't drive between Somerset and the airport and park for a few nights and do it less expensively than what we provide," Tierney said.
In addition to a cheaper fare, the Kentucky Sky Shuttle offers plenty of leg room, he said. Tierney, also fed up with cramming his 6-foot, 5-inch frame into bus and plane seats, has had the Kentucky Sky Shuttle van, originally a 12-passenger vehicle, reconfigured to hold nine people, including the driver.
For $5 more, Kentucky Sky Shuttle will provide submarine sandwiches from Penn Station.
Quite a few Blue Grass Airport passengers from southern and Eastern Kentucky have inquired about a shuttle service in the past, Tyra said. He said 40 percent of the airport's passengers come from outside the Lexington metropolitan area, and the majority of those are from southern and Eastern Kentucky.
"As word spreads, it should be a very popular service, and I would see it expanding," Tyra said.
Tierney, a former airline employee in his early 60s, has spent two years doing research, trial runs and paperwork to get the shuttle service going.
Kentucky Sky Shuttle's first customer, a woman in her 80s who went to Italy for a vacation, arrived on a flight at Blue Grass Airport more than an hour late and minus her luggage because of Hurricane Dennis.
"She was just scared to death that nobody would be there to pick her up. Well, we waited and we picked her up," Tierney said. "She's somebody's mother."
Tierney plans to add two more vans to his shuttle service soon, and hopes to have eight to 10 vans in operation eventually.
Drivers are neatly dressed and undergo special driver's training. Kentucky Sky Shuttle also runs criminal background checks on its drivers, and they are subject to random drug and alcohol testing, Tierney said.
Kentucky Sky Shuttle charges extra to carry items such as golf clubs and skis and small pets in airline approved carriers. Discount fares are available for families, senior citizens and people on active military duty. The shuttle service also provides rides to and from the Somerset airport.
Currently, Kentucky Sky Shuttle has passenger pickup and drop-off points at all hotels and the airport and hospital in Somerset. In Stanford, riders are picked up and dropped off at Wal-Mart. Danville pickup and drop-off points are the Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Bowlorama.
Tierney said the shuttle covers nearly 90 percent of the departures and arrivals at Blue Grass Airport.
Reservations with Kentucky Sky Shuttle should be made at least 24 hours in advance. For now, customers may make reservations by calling 606-669-2020 or 606-379-0111. Tierney hopes to have a shuttle service reservation system tied into its internet site by the end of the month. Then people may make reservations through http://kyshuttle.com.
