Charter service in jeopardy at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport

TSA pulled its officers out of the Latrobe airport last month following the shuttering of Spirit Airlines.

By RICH CHOLODOFSKY
TribLive

Having already lost its commercial service the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport near Latrobe is at risk of losing regular charter service.

Owners of the company that operates two monthly charter flights to casino destinations that include Atlantic City, and Reno, Nevada, on Tuesday told members of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority those trips could end.

The airport would need to reach an agreement with the Transportation Security Administration to continue operations of security checkpoints in order to keep the charter flights, company said.

TSA officials pulled its officers out of the Palmer airport last month following the shuttering of Spirit Airlines, which served as the facility’s lone commercial carrier.

Antonia Battaglia-Elo, co-owner of Aliquippa-based Preferred Casino Tours LLC, warned that should charter service be halted it likely will not return.

“They need to make it work. Otherwise you will have a $20 million banquet center next door,” Battaglia-Elo said, referring to a $22 million expansion of the airport’s passenger terminal that is expected to be completed this summer.

Following TSA’s pullout last month the charter company relocated its scheduled departure from Palmer airport on May 28 to Pittsburgh International Airport. The company’s next scheduled departure on June 11 to Reno as well as future trips Atlantic City in July, August and September are also likely be relocated to other nearby airports, company co-owner John Mitchell told airport authority board members.

Charter service and private air travel are all that remain at the once-thriving airport where Spirit operated daily service to destinations that included Florida cities of Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and seasonal service to Myrtle Beach.

Spirit grounded its flights and ended its business in early May, leaving Arnold Palmer Regional Airport without commercial service.

In response, TSA announced last month the agency will no longer staff security lines at Palmer airport, a requirement for charter to operate at the Unity facility.

Westmoreland County Airport Authority Executive Director Maurice Haas confirmed that TSA’s withdrawal has put charter service in jeopardy. He suggested it was unlikely TSA or private security can return without a commitment for regularly scheduled commercial service.

“A few days after Spirit left they (TSA) moved to other airports. Once we get someone in we’ll notify them and hopefully bring them back. We’re talking to TSA, but we have to have scheduled service for them to come,” Haas said.

Spirit’s shuttering has had a dramatic impact on the airport. At its height, the airline moved more than 350,000 passengers annually and even as the number of flights decreased over the last several years, the airline still saw more than 100,000 passengers a year fly out of the Westmoreland airport.

No commercial travelers have flown from the Palmer airport in recent weeks. The parking lots in front of the facility were largely empty on Tuesday.

Airport officials laid off 25 staffers last month, leaving the facility with just 18 fulltime and two part-time workers.

“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and we’re trying to put things back together, but we need a little bit of patience and everything will be back to good here shortly,” said Paul Whittaker, chairman of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority.

Whittaker declined further comment when asked about why he was confident that a turnaround was ahead for the airport.

The authority last month submitted an application to the federal transportation agency seeking a grant to start new commercial service through an unnamed carrier. Officials hope that grant might be awarded later this year.

Meanwhile, officials continue to face the economic realities of operating an airport without commercial flights.

The authority could lose a significant portion of its federal funding if passenger totals dip below 10,000 annually. Haas said that threshold will be reached in 2026 as a result of four months of Spirit flights that operated through the beginning of May.

Funding could be jeopardized without commercial or charter service in 2027, he said.