For those of you wanting to utilize the flight from Bridgeport’s North Central West Virginia Airport to Orlando, you’re out of luck. The highly popular flight is no longer being offered.

 

Fortunately for those who may have panicked about the service being out of rotation, there’s no need to worry. The Allegiant Airlines flights from Bridgeport to Orlando-Sanford International Airport is on its annual maintenance hiatus.

 

“We’ve done this every year since we’ve had the service. Basically, Allegiant takes the planes they’re utilizing for service with us and these destination flights and do service and maintenance,” NCWV Airport Director Rick Rock said at Wednesday’s meeting of the Benedum Airport Authority. “This is the time of year they do it as it’s typically a little bit slower of a travel time due to school starting back in many areas.”

 

The good news is two-fold, according to Rock. First, the flights are resuming Sept. 22 of this year. Second, the break between taking the flights out of service for maintenance and resuming them continues to decrease.

 

“Each year that window where there’s a break has gotten shorter,” Rock said. “Last time, it was the first week of October when they opted to resume flights.”

 

That, of course, brings Rock to why the decreasing of the window between service and maintenance and a return to flight service is really good news. It brings the airport one step closer to a goal it believed could be met when Allegiant first announced its arrival in Bridgeport.

 

“This brings us much closer to having year-round destination service to Orlando,” said Rock.

 

Rock said Allegiant has done something else that it hasn’t done before. It’s already committed to having the flights to Orlando through August of 2017 once the resumption begins. He said he thinks there’s only one way that will change.

 

“That would change, in my mind, only if they go to year-round service and we’re still going to press for that. The fact that we have so many people in this community and surrounding communities using that flight makes it a more feasible scenario than it would otherwise. I can tell you (Allegiant has) taken a good hard look at doing that,” said Rock. “We anticipate them being a good partner as this airport well into the future in, hopefully, multiple capacities.”

 

Allegiant first started flights in late 2013 and that year saw 1,837 individuals take advantage of the flights. The next year, it exploded with 13,724 passengers using the flight. In 2015, when Myrtle Beach was added for a short summer period, the numbers of those using Allegiant went to 16,350.

 

This year, with Myrtle Beach Flights extended into late September and with Orlando resuming next month, Rock expects to have the highest totals yet. Through July of this year, a total of 11,097 individuals have flown out of Bridgeport on the Orlando and Myrtle Beach Allegiant flights – the bulk of those numbers being to Orlando.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows NCWV Airport Director Rick Rock addressing the Benedum Airport Authority - the airport's governing body - last week. Bottom photo is of an Allegiant jet parked at the airport.