No harm done in Pan Am mess
Last month, Pan Am Clipper Connection announced it would offer regular commercial flights from Trumbull County to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla; Orlando-Sanford, Fla.; and Newburgh, N.Y.
Last week, Pan Am halted its plans to come to the airport when it learned local officials were pulling a $250,000 Federal Aviation Administration grant to publicize Pan Am Clipper Connection's Service in the wake of a Department of Transportation official's request for a probe. Karan Bhatia, assistant secretary for aviation and internal affairs at the DOT, sent a letter to the inspector general asking for an investigation of Pan Am.
Pan Am had only three jets to service an ambitious and expanding flight schedule - including Youngstown-Warren.
The Airline Pilots Association had challenged Pan Am's fitness to operate when the airline sought to have more planes certified. The pilot's union contended that a Pan Am officer had submitted a falsified bond to the ALPA in an unrelated labor case.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, decided to pull the marketing grant after Pan Am turned down its request last week for a performance bond to guarantee service.
The news of the latest failure to bring a commercial airline to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport has only given some longtime skeptics of the airport more fuel. We have disagreed in the past and do so again.
Vacation Express halted flights at the airport after operating for only five months in 2004.
But two important events transpired for this area by having that airline in place for those five months. First, lawmakers were able to apply for and receive a federal grant, and secondly, it probably helped to keep the Youngstown Air Reserve Station open. In May, the Pentagon announced that the Youngstown Air Reserve Station will not close as part of the Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure procedure. The station depends on the airport's runway and services.
Chuck Johnson, hired by Rubenstein and Associates as the airport's director of development, said he didn't view the Pan Am matter as another strike against the port authority in the court of public opinion. "I don't think this is a strike,'' Johnson said of pulling the marketing. "We prevented a strike.''
We agree. There was no harm, no foul in this venture. And officials still are pursuing other airlines led by the public relations firm of Rubenstein and Associates.
What Rubenstein and port authority officials need to learn from these two ventures is twofold: more diligence is needed in researching a company and checking into its stability and being too anxious or impatient to get a carrier can be dangerous. There are a lot of third-rate companies that could see a $250,000 grant dangling and patch up an old plane and call itself a carrier service.
We have long said and continue to support the fact that the regional airport is a key to future economic development. It is easy for some people who have chosen to view their glasses as half empty rather than half full and close the doors and call it a failure. We see the airport as a bargaining chip for future development.
Officials need to make better decisions and be more diligent in checking the backgrounds of prospective carriers. To say the airport is finished because of these two failed adventures, however, is premature and lacks vision.
