For those wanting to see additional destination flights from Bridgeport, North Central West Virginia Airport Director Rick Rock said he’ll continue to work on making that happen. In the meantime, he’s hoping to convince those involved with current destination service to do something that could also be beneficial to area travelers.

 

“We hope to add some additional flights to our existing destination service,” said Rock.

 

The service Rock is talking about is the highly successful Allegiant flights from Bridgeport to the Orlando Sanford International Airport. Currently, there are two flights a week between the two airports – Thursday and Sunday.

 

Rock will be making his pitch at an Allegiant Annual Airport Conference set for April 19-22. While he’s confident that the success of the existing flight will allow Allegiant officials to give him serious attention, he said nothing is a given in the highly competitive market.

 

“What we have on our side is a now firm track record of success,” said Rock. “Because of that instead of just being happy with two flights to Orlando per week, we’re going to pitch four flights per week. That would certainly be great for us. Anything that adds additional seats to this market is good for the airport, good for the economy and, most important, good for the traveling public.”

 

Orlando will be the first area that will be discussed for additional flight service. Rock said with it being a proven market for well over a year now it makes the most sense. However, that won’t be the only thing discussed.

 

“We also know that Myrtle Beach, now, is a proven market for this region,” said Rock. “At some point, we’d like to extend the season that we have flights going from here to Myrtle Beach.”

 

Bridgeport will see the second round of flights to Myrtle Beach begin June 3 and run through August 16.  Flights will be offered Monday and Friday.

 

“The problem there is simply one relating to aircraft. (Allegiant) is moving to the airbus aircraft and they’re waiting on delivery of those aircraft,” said Rock. “Still, we want to stay on top of that and see if we can’t add a longer stretch of time to the Myrtle Beach flight.”

 

Rock is also aware that anytime discussion takes place on expanding existing flight service or adding new destination flights that the community has plenty of places on their wish list. However, he said some are feasible and some aren’t at the present time.

 

“We know we here Tampa a whole lot and we know that there are 20,000 Mountaineers in Fort Lauderdale,” said Rock. “We know they’ve not been real receptive about Las Vegas, but we’ll keep pushing because that’s what we hear from the community and we know they do offer flights there. Because of that, we want to be an advocate to try to create that service being cognizant of creating a flight we can support and not have something that turns into a failure. Right now, we know that is Orlando is strong enough to take on four flights.”

 

Rock said he maintains regular contact with Allegiant officials. However, he said the trip to the annual conference where he may be joined by someone from the Benedum Airport Authority – the airport’s governing body – is where you get a chance to sit down and have serious discussions.

 

“They have network planners and look at the performance of the market and how to improve it for our community and how it benefits them,” said Rock. “They’re dealing not just with us, but with 101 communities. Out of those communities, those planners will determine.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is of NCWV Airport Director Rick Rock, while bottom photo (courtesy of NCWV Airport) shows an Allegiant flight in Bridgeport.