Arnold Palmer airport sees rise in bookings, hopes to beef up September runway work

Officials at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport are hoping to work on runway improvements — widening and strengthening — simultaneously in September, if funding is approved in time.

Meanwhile, Westmoreland County Airport Authority Executive Director Gabe Monzo said Tuesday he’s pleased with how travel at the airport in Unity is taking off again, after being shut down in early April as part of the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on air travel.

“It’s looking really good as far as leisure travel is concerned,” he said of the summer ahead. “The only thing that has changed is we see a trend toward people not booking as far out as they were before. They’re booking two weeks ahead of the schedule.”

Passengers at the airport plummeted from slightly more than 20,000 in March to just 423 in April before rebounding in May to close to 2,000 as the airport’s sole commercial carrier, Spirit Airlines, gradually relaunched service to Orlando, Fla.

According to figures shared by the authority, outbound passenger bookings for June were at 1,823, as of Tuesday , with inbound passenger bookings at 1,449.

On Thursday , Spirit will resume direct flights between Latrobe and Orlando, replacing an initial circular route connecting Orlando, Pittsburgh and Latrobe. Service to Orlando will increase from three days per week to five, Thursdays through Mondays.

Flights to Ft. Lauderdale and Myrtle Beach, S.C., will be available beginning June 25.

Monzo said Spirit is scheduling its flights to avoid use of the runway overnight, the hours when Golden Triangle Construction is completing initial work on widening the runway from 100 feet to 150 feet. Instead of scheduling two shifts of employees, he said, the airport is able to serve the flights with a single 10-hour shift.

“That’s good for everyone involved,” Monzo said, noting staff are sanitizing the terminal building between flights during the pandemic.

Golden Triangle is adding a 25-foot strip to the edge of the runway farthest from the terminal. The airport is slated to shut down for 16 days in September so that another 25 feet can be added on the opposite edge.

Scott Kunselman, the authority engineer, said additional work by Derry Construction, including strengthening the runway with an extra three-inch layer of asphalt, could get under way simultaneously in September if the Federal Aviation Administration approves a grant to help cover the contractor’s $5.1 million bid.

Kunselman said Golden Triangle is “on or slightly ahead of schedule. If the grant comes through in time, we’re going to have Derry and Golden Triangle go out there at the same time,” he said. “We may be able to save not doing a (runway) shutdown next year.”

Widening the runway is meant to increase safety while strengthening it will allow for more frequent flights, Monzo has said.

Even before the pandemic struck, the airport authority decided not to hold an air show at the airport this summer because of difficulty in scheduling headliners. For the planned 2021 show, Monzo noted, the U. S. Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team will be able to include a four-aircraft takeoff in their show.

“They could never do it here because the runway was 100 feet wide,” he said.