Aug. 19—Johnstown's airport authority has hired a Harrisburg lobbying firm to help the airport land an ultra-low-cost carrier.
Airport authorities are prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration from spending their money directly to subsidize flights by low-cost carriers such as Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines, said Cory Cree, manager of John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.
Small airports have had to get creative to provide such flights, by searching out unique funding streams and, in some cases, by building coalitions of community residents and business leaders willing to lead the effort, Cree said.
Through a $6,000-per-month contract, the KSA Group will pursue the routes needed to have Johnstown's airport add an additional carrier, he said.
The airport is far from the first to take an out-of-the-box approach to lure air service.
"In some states, organizations are being formed specifically to fund ultra-low-cost carriers because of the benefits they bring," Cree said.
In recent years, city and county governments have even funneled annual tax dollars annually to lure or keep an airline. In Oklahoma, the city of Stillwater and Oklahoma State University stepped up to pay $4 million over two years to keep American Airlines carrying passengers to the community.
At Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, the Westmoreland County commissioners have dedicated millions of dollars over the years to keep Spirit offering daily flights to south Florida, Myrtle Beach and other destinations. That included $700,000 in 2015 to employ ground operators and other staff Spirit needs to operate flights, the ( Greensburg) Tribune-Review reported at the time.
In return, the state estimated the community benefited greatly from the tax investment — valuing the airport's economic impact at $226 million in 2019, a PennDOT aviation impact study shows. That figure is more than double the estimated total from the year before Spirit began service there.
Cree said Greater Johnstown could benefit too. The nation's low-cost carriers often route direct flights to vacation destinations — a potential boon to Cambria and Somerset counties' traveling public.
Those flights would also drive up the the number of people who travel from outside the region into Johnstown to catch those flights, Cree said, and on their way to and from an airport, travelers support hotels, restaurants and even retail stores.
Members of the Johnstown airport's ever-changing authority board have talked for years about trying to lure a low-cost carrier. But this is the first time they've invested this heavily into the idea.
Earlier this summer, board members contracted with airline consulting group ArkStar to market the airport to carriers such as Spirit, Allegiant and Breeze Airways. Through the $5,000-per-month deal, ArkStar's Gary Foss already has discussions underway with Nevada-based Allegiant.
Airport officials met with the company in a web meeting in June, and Foss is following up with them later this month, Cree said.
"Our thought is that we want to cast a wide net and get as many carriers interested as we can," he said. "We want to talk to all of them."
Johnstown's airport currently offers service to two destinations — Chicago and Dulles, Virginia — on 50-seat jets.
Without question, the community would have to find a way to help subsidize additional flights, regardless of which carrier buys in, Cree added.
While some airports have established coalitions to raise funds, "we're going to have to find unique ways to support our goal," Cree said, "and KSA is going to help us (through that process)."
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