10 Years In, Small Town Links to PIT Pay Dividends

For many residents of Bradford in McKean County, a doctor’s appointment often means a trip to Pittsburgh – a 155-mile drive on curvy secondary roads that for much of the year can be clogged with snow and ice.

“There’s a rural health care crisis in this country. Many people here now have to go as far as Pittsburgh just to visit a primary care doctor,” said Alicia Dankesreiter, manager of the Bradford Regional Airport.

For nearly 10 years, Bradford residents have had an alternative to that long and unpredictable drive. Twice a day, nine-seat airplanes depart from Bradford to Pittsburgh and back.

“It’s been a great help to the community,” Dankesreiter said of the flights, which cost about $59 and are underwritten as part of Essential Air Service, a U.S. government program enacted after deregulation in 1978 to keep commercial air service in smaller communities.

Bradford is home to the manufacturer of the famed Zippo lighter and is the site where the first Piper Cub airplanes were built.

The city also is home to a branch of the University of Pittsburgh, and Bradford’s airport handles nearly all sports travel for nearby St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York.

10 Years of Flights

More than 270,000 passengers have flown on Essential Air Service flights to or from Pittsburgh since 2014, when the program began flying to Pittsburgh. While the number of cities has shifted over the past 10 years, the flights have remained viable options for passengers looking to either come to Pittsburgh or connect onward to one of PIT’s 62 nonstop destinations.

Besides Bradford, Lancaster, and Morgantown, West Virginia, have two daily weekday roundtrips to Pittsburgh, while DuBois has three daily weekday roundtrips. The same airports also have daily roundtrips to Washington-Dulles airport.

Lancaster service began in November 2014; Bradford in March 2015; DuBois in September 2016; and Morgantown in November 2016.

Southern Airways Express currently operates the flights, though Boutique Air has also operated Essential Air Service routes at PIT in the past.

“The Essential Air Service program goes back to the late 1970s, with a goal of maintaining scheduled air service in smaller markets when the airline industry was deregulated. It’s an essential and critical link for these communities,” said Kevan Hoffman, manager of air service development at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Communities that are included in the federal Essential Air Service program are part of bidding process with subsidized carriers that can shift service from nearby large airports, depending on the carrier – a common practice across the country.

In December, Morgantown’s Essential Air Service route will shift from service to PIT with service to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles. Carrier SkyWest recently won a three-year contract for the Morgantown service and will offer the first-ever jet service for that airport.

Many reasons for travel

Reasons for travel on EAS routes vary, airport officials say.

Many who fly out of DuBois, a onetime coal mining and lumber town, are traveling to Pittsburgh for connecting flights, said Bob Shaffer, manager of the DuBois Regional Airport.

“These flights are the first step of vacation travel for many people,” he said.

Still, travel from DuBois is not all for play.

For 10 years, DuBois has been home to a large yogurt manufacturing facility run by Danone, a multinational food-products corporation.

Nearby Punxsutawney is the site of the annual Ground Hog Day festivities, which draw visitors from around the world.

Lancaster, about 240 miles from Pittsburgh and 80 miles from Philadelphia, is the farthest destination from Pittsburgh.

Its passengers fit a somewhat different profile from the other cities, said Ed Foster, executive director of the Lancaster Airport.

“The flights are very popular with college students. Many people from around here attend universities in Pittsburgh,” he said.

Pittsburgh is also a destination for business travel from Southeastern Pennsylvania, Foster said. Famed as the center of Pennsylvania Amish Country, Lancaster County’s population and median income have grown for each of the past 12 years.

Similarly, officials in Dubois said the flights are an important link to the national air transportation system.

“The flights are popular, both with business people and those on vacation. They’re an important link to other places,” said Jodi August, executive director of the Greater Dubois Chamber of Commerce.