Mobile could be in line to get a direct flight to Washington, D.C., after winning a federal grant to allow for new commercial air service.
The grant announcement came from U.S. Senator Richard Shelby via Twitter.
The Republican senator said the U.S. Department of Transportation grant allows for the new service between Mobile Regional Airport and Washington-Dulles International Airport.
Chris Curry, president of the Mobile Airport Authority (MAA), said there is no guarantee that the service will happen, nor is there any timetable for when the non-stop flights will begin.
He said the grant was applied with a support letter from United Airlines, Airbus, Austal USA and the University of South Alabama.
The Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) grant award to the Mobile Airport Authority is $1 million, which will allow for “revenue guarantee” and “associated marketing program to recruit, initiate and support new air service” to Washington-Dulles.
As part of the Mobile Airport Authority’s application, it will add $225,000 in local cash funding, which brings the total amount towards the potential new service to $1.2 million.
“Nothing has been confirmed, certainly,” said Curry, who credited Shelby for assisting in getting the grant approved. “But this gives the Airport Authority another tool to provide United Airlines to enhance service (from Mobile).”
Curry said the intent of MAA is to utilize the grant for the Washington-Dulles service. Less than two-dozen communities received a portion of the $58 million in federal assistance through the grant program. The U.S. DOT received 78 applications from communities in 38 states.
Mobile was the only city in Alabama to win a grant reward. Montgomery Regional Airport sought $850,000 from the same grant program to expand flight service into George Bush International Airport Houston.
Gulf Shores applied for $950,000 in SCASDP money for a variety of projects that included flights from Jack Edwards Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville and seasonal flights to Dallas, Houston, or Memphis.
“This significant investment will result in increased connectivity between Mobile and Washington, D.C., and will enable continued economic development for South Alabama,” said U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile.
Curry said that even though MAA is receiving the grant, the Washington, D.C. service is not imminent.
“I had a grant (awarded) in Tallahassee, and it took three years before the airline acted on the opportunity,” said Curry, the former director of aviation at Tallahassee International Airport in Florida.
He added, “Our intent is to follow up with United and perhaps, in the next week or so, to determine where they are and what their timetable might be on doing that.”
Curry said that the flights could also occur from the Downtown airport, which has not provided direct commercial service since last year.
The Downtown Mobile Airport terminal is a two-gate facility that was retrofitted in a warehouse as part of an $8 million project completed in May 2019 to accommodate low-cost carriers like Denver-based Frontier Airlines, which once provided flights to Denver, Chicago and Orlando.
He said that Airbus, which has its largest North American manufacturing operations at Brookley, also has its North American headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“When I wrote the grant, I wrote it for either airport because I wanted the flexibility that if United decided to stay at Regional and start up Dulles service, they could do it (there) or if they wanted to move downtown earlier and do it, they could do that or they could wait until everyone moves to the downtown airport,” Curry said. “It was written with the most flexibility that we could (provide).”
The grant comes at a time when the MAA is moving ahead with swapping the city’s commercial airport service from Mobile Regional in west Mobile to the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley near downtown.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved MAA’s 20-year master plan for swapping commercial aviation operations in Mobile in early April. Curry said the MAA is set to vote on a contract with Birmingham-based Hoar Program Management (HPM) to serve as the project manager for the design and construction of a new $160 million terminal complex at Brookley. The new terminal could open by 2024.
HPM, which has offices in Mobile, was the lead design and construction expertise during the $600 million Airbus final assembly project that opened in 2015.
The overall goal of swapping airports is to make Mobile more attractive for future commercial flights, and more competitive with nearby airports such as Pensacola International Airport. Pensacola offers non-stop United Airlines flights to Washington-Dulles and American Airlines flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, Huntsville International Airport and Montgomery Regional Airport also offer non-stop flights to Washington, D.C.
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