Fewer Planes Flying Over, More Passengers at Airport
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio – The air traffic control tower at Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport is recording fewer flights, despite increased activity for the airport itself.
For the first five months of this year, tower operations were 11,791, down from 14,058 for the same period in 2012, Michael Silvius, air traffic manager for the airport tower, told members of the Western Reserve Port Authority Wednesday. “That represents every airplane that talks to our tower and either comes through the tower’s airspace or comes to the airport,” he said. Radar activity dropped from 18,302 to 15,562.
The decline is chiefly in general aviation; military and air taxi operations have been consistent, he said. A decrease in overflight activity to and from surrounding airports rather than Youngstown-Warren’s activity is responsible, as pilots chose not to fly their planes due to the price of aircraft fuel, he said.
“I don’t see a big drop” at Youngstown-Warren, Silvius said. “It’s more the surrounding facilities that have reduced the amount of planes. Consolidation of the airlines means fewer airplanes,” he added.
“If the numbers keep going down it becomes harder to justify our existence,” he said, though he noted that the Youngstown tower is “not in jeopardy of going away.” Low overnight traffic helps justify efforts to eliminate those hours. Reducing hours would reduce expenses and improve the case for maintaining the tower, he said.
The airport itself is seeing additional activity and is seeing increased revenues, pointed out Dan Dickten, aviation director.
All revenue streams on the aviation side have met anticipated goals year to date, Kevin Kern, special projects director at the airport, told the port authority board. “Any revenue stream that is generated because of corporate aircraft activity and general aviation activity is much higher than anticipated because of increased activity over there,” he said.
June was a “banner month” for the airport, with 12,452 total passengers, Dickten reported. He attributed that to increased flights by Allegiant Air. Load factor for Allegiant’s flights was 95.2%, “which is amazing,” he said. Passenger activity year-to-date is 43,943, and the load factor for flights is at 93.9% so far.
The port authority’s executive director, Rose Ann DeLeon, reported a 17-page work plan for the brownfield assessment grant the agency secured was submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week and approved, enabling the port authority to submit final paperwork for processing. A draft request for proposals also has been completed and is expected to be issued early next month. Planning activities should be under way by Sept. 30, she said.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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