Flights Ending Meets Opposition
Economic Impact
Posted: 11:02 a.m. EDT September 15, 2005
Several officials and business leaders say that decision needs to change for the sake of the local economy.
On Thursday, Channel 6 spoke to the executive director of the Windber Research Institute in Somerset County and Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger. Both men say the planes to D.C. and Pittsburgh must continue to fly out of the region's local airports and they plan to take action.
Michael Liebman, Executive Director of the Windber Research Institute says, "A lot of our visitors, both international and national come through Washington, and this afforded them another opportunity to have a convenient way to come up here, so we think it's unfortunate from that perspective."
Liebman tells Channel 6 he doesn't believe three months is enough time to see if the D.C. flights were beneficial to the area and losing those flights could make the region a little less appealing to out of state visitors like researchers and doctors.
It's not going to really limit what we do, its just going to make it a little more inconvenient.
Now, Cambria and Blair County officials are considering teaming up for the sake of the region. Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger says, "We want to work jointly with the Johnstown/Cambria County Airport Authority to approach Colgan Air to have these flights out of both airports."
Eichelberger says next week is when he plans to move forward on a joint approach to U.S. Air because airport managers for both the Johnstown and Altoona Airports will be in their offices.
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