"Airport focus turns to making existing service better"

Monday, August 23, 2004
  
Airport focus turns to making existing service better
By Paul J. Nyden
The Charleston (WV) Gazette


With the demise of plans for a regional airport in Lincoln County, area
leaders say they can now concentrate on improving service at other airports
in the state.

"I think [the regional airport's demise] happened years ago. It is just
official now," said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones, who was a spokesman for
the project back in 1998 when he worked for the state Department of
Transportation.

"But that debate put Yeager Airport on its toes," Jones said. "Today, I
think Yeager has the best management team it has had in its history. I think
it will flourish."

He's not as optimistic about the future of Tri-State Airport in Huntington:
"I am not sure that airport can survive. Maybe the state can help Tri-State
get some cargo business and help it survive."

Tri-State Airport Director Larry G. Salyers said Friday: "We have been, and
will continue, to work on improving air services with our existing air
carriers, Delta and US Airways, while continuing to evaluate potential new
service.

"We are preparing a market assessment and an air service strategy for the
Tri-state area and will be making presentations to one or more airlines,"
Salyers said. "We will still be very much of an asset to the community."

Tri-State draws passengers from West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.

In recent years, the West Virginia Public Port Authority spent more than $7
million on legal fees and private consultants to prepare studies advocating
the new regional airport.

On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Fred VanKirk released a Federal
Aviation Administration review criticizing the Port Authority's latest
Benefit Cost Analysis.

The FAA concluded travelers wouldn't save as much money as it would cost
government to build the new airport. No federal money can be used to build
an airport unless those funds are at least matched by savings for airline
passengers over 20 years.


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