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More good news for the Huntington area as Tri-State Airport continues its astounding growth with even more growth on the horizon due to runway expansions, etc. Great news for sure!
This is great news, but with that Tri State needs to do some serious work!
I flew out of there in July and I felt like I could have brought anything on my carry-on bag.
plus that airport is so crampt and small!
I still think there needs to be a Yeager/Tri State International Airport off of the new US-35 in Putnam county!
If they actually DID combine populations, they could have a legitimate national airport with multiple carriers and dozens of destinations.
Charleston doesn't think their airport should be anywhere but close to Charleston and Huntington has that bizarre civic Napoleon syndrome going on...so that's not gonna happen...
Actually, I agree with you. There aren't any large cities in the whole region, but the population pool of both areas would support a small regional airport. I suspect you'd have to link to a large metro area to get an international connection, but they'd definitely gain stature by merging. I think the same is true for North Central. Although they are close to Pittsburgh, if they built a combined airport in Fairmont I think the thing would fly as an alternative regional airport.
If they actually DID combine populations, they could have a legitimate national airport with multiple carriers and dozens of destinations.
Charleston doesn't think their airport should be anywhere but close to Charleston and Huntington has that bizarre civic Napoleon syndrome going on...so that's not gonna happen...
You are spot on about Charleston but very wrong about Huntington's position on a Regional Airport. Huntington leaders and businessmen have supported a Regional Airport since the 1960s but Charleston representatives have nearly always shot it down. If you have to have the support of both areas but only one will support it, why should Huntington keep waiting for something that will never happen due to the uneven balance of power with this issue? They shouldn't, which is why they are working to build Tri-State up even beyond where it currently is.
They are lengthening the runway to bring in bigger planes. Allegiant Air has brought much of the success to Tri-State and they are based in Las Vegas. Rumor is that is one reason they are lengthening the runway is for direct flights to Los Vegas via Allegiant. Of course it will also open other opportunities as well.
And if there is a city in West Virginia that has a Napoleon complex, it sure isn't Huntington seeing as how we are only about 2,000 people from being the biggest city.
Here's an article on the subject from 2001 with a few quotes on positions of the two areas:
"By the late 1960s, however, Huntington city officials and the Chamber of Commerce were looking to the future and advocating construction of a new airport - at a Putnam County location that could serve not only the Huntington area but also Charleston and the Kanawha Valley."
The FAA eventually endorsed the idea of a new airport, but with an important "catch" - only if the citizens of Huntington and Charleston could come to agreement. That wasn't to be. In 1967, Cabell County voters went to the polls and endorsed a $2.5 million bond levy to help pay the local share of the new airport's cost. Putnam County voters also approved $500,000 in airport bonds. But Kanawha County officials loaded down the ballot there with a total of $9 million in bonds, not just for the airport but for schools, a new courthouse, recreation facilities and a stream revitalization project. Not surprisingly, Kanawha voters said "no." The outcome might have been very different if Kanawha officials, seeing the new airport as a threat rather than an opportunity, hadn't deliberately stacked the deck.
Huntington businessman Ned Jones uses the word "jobs" a great deal in explaining his avid support for a new airport. Jones is chairman of the Just In Time Transportation and Development Corporation, a grass-roots group organized to push the new airport plan. The group has been distributing a bumper sticker that reads "JobsPort."
Jones recalls a public meeting where Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, a Yeager partisan and outspoken foe of any new airport, was asked how many jobs Yeager would create if it extended its runway as it has proposed. Carper's answer: "zero."
"That," says Jones, "clearly sums up the difference in the potential of the two projects: thousands of new jobs versus maintaining the status quo."
Charleston
But the proposed new airport had very powerful enemies, including the late U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph and a number of Charleston political and business leaders.
Yeager's backers insist that a new airport would mean higher ticket prices, as the airlines would be forced to charge higher fares in order to pay their share of the construction costs. But of the many factors involved in airline ticket pricing, the most important is competition. Lure just one new low-cost carrier to a new regional airport and the cost of tickets will go down, not up. That's the way competition works.
Regional bickering is one of the main reasons our state
has trouble breaking out of the funk economically in a
number of ways. It is one of the great paradoxes that
we have so much pride in the state, but at the same
time it is like having five states in one with each region
having its own different and distinct identity and battling
with the others for ever scarcer resources.
The politicos at the state level play to this as well. They
play one region off against the other, then parcel our favors
in exchange for support.
It's great that there is some positive news in Huntington,
or anywhere in the country for that matter. These days it
is increasingly hard to come by. I had heard those flights
to Florida were very successful. I suspect they are drawing
passengers from Charleston too since they don't have similar
flights.
Actually, I agree with you. There aren't any large cities in the whole region, but the population pool of both areas would support a small regional airport. I suspect you'd have to link to a large metro area to get an international connection, but they'd definitely gain stature by merging. I think the same is true for North Central. Although they are close to Pittsburgh, if they built a combined airport in Fairmont I think the thing would fly as an alternative regional airport.
Combine CRW and HTS and you would get about 350,000+ enplanements per year which would be a pretty viable airport. It will likely never happen though because Huntington has supported it for nearly 50 years but more importantly, Charleston has fought it for that long.
Combine MGW and CKB though and you still only have about 25,000 enplanements per year. In my opinion the proximity to Pittsburgh keeps something like that from happening because you still don't have enough competition to compete with Pittsburgh. Plus CKB barely made 10,000 enplanements last year and that was only because they gave away free go up and come right back down flights to people just to pad their numbers and meet 10,000 to get a $1 million grant. Who knows, it could happen though.
You might be right, but I think if they had a niche market
like the Florida flights you have in Huntington as well as
flights to Myrtle and Las Vegas it could change the scenario.
Those kinds of flights tend to be of the "budget" variety
you find at the smaller venues that don't compete directly
with the airports at the larger metro areas.
I lived in the NYC area for nearly 2 decades. They have
several large airports in that region, but also smaller
more specialty oriented airports that are highly successful.
Having the kinds of flights you envision for a combined
Charleston/Huntington airport in Fairmont might well draw
passengers from PA and MD as well as the immediate area.
I know people from Wheeling who fly out of Columbus, for
example for some flights rather than Pittsburgh even though
the Pgh airport is less than an hour away. It is a lot
cheaper.
None of this will probably happen because (1) the Feds
don't have a serious interest in increasing transportation
efficiency and (2) there is minimal support except at the
local area. Like you pointed out, it is tough to even get a
$1 million grant and you can't really do much with that.
You are spot on about Charleston but very wrong about Huntington's position on a Regional Airport. Huntington leaders and businessmen have supported a Regional Airport since the 1960s but Charleston representatives have nearly always shot it down. If you have to have the support of both areas but only one will support it, why should Huntington keep waiting for something that will never happen due to the uneven balance of power with this issue? They shouldn't, which is why they are working to build Tri-State up even beyond where it currently is.
They are lengthening the runway to bring in bigger planes. Allegiant Air has brought much of the success to Tri-State and they are based in Las Vegas. Rumor is that is one reason they are lengthening the runway is for direct flights to Los Vegas via Allegiant. Of course it will also open other opportunities as well.
And if there is a city in West Virginia that has a Napoleon complex, it sure isn't Huntington seeing as how we are only about 2,000 people from being the biggest city.
Here's an article on the subject from 2001 with a few quotes on positions of the two areas:
"By the late 1960s, however, Huntington city officials and the Chamber of Commerce were looking to the future and advocating construction of a new airport - at a Putnam County location that could serve not only the Huntington area but also Charleston and the Kanawha Valley."
The FAA eventually endorsed the idea of a new airport, but with an important "catch" - only if the citizens of Huntington and Charleston could come to agreement. That wasn't to be. In 1967, Cabell County voters went to the polls and endorsed a $2.5 million bond levy to help pay the local share of the new airport's cost. Putnam County voters also approved $500,000 in airport bonds. But Kanawha County officials loaded down the ballot there with a total of $9 million in bonds, not just for the airport but for schools, a new courthouse, recreation facilities and a stream revitalization project. Not surprisingly, Kanawha voters said "no." The outcome might have been very different if Kanawha officials, seeing the new airport as a threat rather than an opportunity, hadn't deliberately stacked the deck.
Huntington businessman Ned Jones uses the word "jobs" a great deal in explaining his avid support for a new airport. Jones is chairman of the Just In Time Transportation and Development Corporation, a grass-roots group organized to push the new airport plan. The group has been distributing a bumper sticker that reads "JobsPort." Jones recalls a public meeting where Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, a Yeager partisan and outspoken foe of any new airport, was asked how many jobs Yeager would create if it extended its runway as it has proposed. Carper's answer: "zero."
"That," says Jones, "clearly sums up the difference in the potential of the two projects: thousands of new jobs versus maintaining the status quo."
Charleston
But the proposed new airport had very powerful enemies, including the late U.S. Sen. Jennings Randolph and a number of Charleston political and business leaders.
Yeager's backers insist that a new airport would mean higher ticket prices, as the airlines would be forced to charge higher fares in order to pay their share of the construction costs. But of the many factors involved in airline ticket pricing, the most important is competition. Lure just one new low-cost carrier to a new regional airport and the cost of tickets will go down, not up. That's the way competition works.
I think a regional airport may have made since back in the 1960s when both cities had rather limited air service but I don't think it would be necessary now.
Can't speak for past debates but a lot of Charleston's opposition in the 1990s stemmed from the fact that the proposed airport site was A LOT further away from the city than post proposals. Sure the Winfield exit of I-64 is about equal distance from the CRW and HTS, but the Lincoln County airport site was about 30 miles away. That's pretty far to travel to go to a "regional airport."
Would it be a completely worthless project?...Who knows for sure. However,I don't even think a combined airport would offer that many more flights to new destinations. Charleston already has service to Washington Dulles and Chicago-O'Hare (both major United Airlines hubs), New York-LGA and Chicago O'Hare on American Airlines, Atlanta and Detroit (major Delta hubs), Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Washington-Reagan National (all U.S Airways hubs), Orlando (Air Tran), Houston (major Continental Airlines hub) and now Fort Lauderdale and Myrtle Beach on Spirit Airlines. With the exception of maybe Boston, they have pretty much every major East Coast market and most major Central hubs covered. Where else would even a merged airline provide service? The combined airport would likely have a trade area population about the size of Lexington Ky...the furthest one can fly from there is Dallas. I just can't imagine seeing a lot more flights for such an expensive project.
This is good news for Huntington though and will likely increase their presence on the radar for other airlines.
You can't blame Charleston though for not wanting to give up Yeager Airport.
Yeager alone has a chance to become a "healthy" size airport! It too is growing with added flights, new carriers, and runway and hanger expansion.
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