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Westmoreland County Airport Authority

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport

Proposal Under the

Small Community Air Service 

Development Program

Westmoreland Country Airport Authority

DUNS # 023452634

Congressional District #18
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Overview

Air service is a process, not an event.

This has been a belief long held by the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, which proudly 

operates Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, located in Unity Township, near Latrobe, 

Pennsylvania. The county is home to nearly 400,000 people and the airport’s geographic 

location poises it to serve areas of several surrounding counties, including Fayette, Indiana, 

Somerset and eastern Allegheny, creating a catchment area of more than 750,000 residents 

who find the commute to Pittsburgh International Airport, some 60 miles west of Arnold 

Palmer Regional, a transportation nightmare of epic proportions. Due to decade-old traffic 

congestion problems, drive times to PIT from Westmoreland County and points east commonly 

exceed 90 minutes. In fact, most travelers from this region allow two full hours for the 

commute to PIT. This is the prime reason that the airport’s market region has a proven record 

of viable scheduled air service, which it has supported for more than 25 years.

Such successes weren’t built overnight, and the airport’s accomplishments were the product of 

diligence and hard work that the airport authority has never feared. The airport has linked 

passengers with destinations around the world for more than a quarter of a century through 

hubs in Pittsburgh, and most recently, Detroit. However, shifts in the structures and strategies 

of the national airline system ultimately resulted in the loss of scheduled service on July 31, 

2009. 

The airport’s connection to the air transportation network unraveled and was finally severed 

under the strain of spiking fuel prices, airline labor disputes, bankruptcies and mergers topped 

with a generous helping of hemorrhaging global economies. But it’s important to understand 

that none of these contributing factors were the result of any action or inaction on the airport’s 

part, nor were any within the airport’s control. And these setbacks have served only to 

galvanize the airport’s resolve to reestablish sorely missed and much needed air service 

offerings to the region it serves. 

The airport labors tirelessly to reestablish quality air service that the communities it serves have 

come to expect. These services remain critical to the region’s ability to recruit and retain 

industry and needed jobs. As a part of that relentless pursuit, the airport – collectively, the 

authority and airport management – hereby requests funding assistance through the Small 

Community Air Service Development Program (SCASD).

Existing Air Service at LBE

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE) presently has no daily scheduled service.

Periodic public charters carry passengers to several popular casino destinations. Equipment 

used on these charter flights includes Boeing 737s and McDonnell-Douglas MD 80s.

Historical Air Service at LBE

Commercial flights first took wing at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in the 1980s with Mesa 

Airlines, flying under the US Airways banner, running as many as eight flights per day to

connections out of Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). 
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At that time, US Airways was the dominant airline in the region, and the Mesa service carried 

some 25,000 departing passengers a year out of LBE during its heyday using 19-seat twin turboprop aircraft.

However, that service was grounded in 2004 in the buildup to US Airways’ strategic decline in 

the western Pennsylvania region. While the airline never satisfactorily specified reasons for 

halting the service, it occurred amid its struggle with two separate bankruptcy filings. And, not 

long afterward, the airline significantly slashed flights and shrunk its presence at PIT, citing an 

influx of low-cost airline competitors. Sans its former hub status, PIT is still seeking ways to 

recover from the dramatic declines inflicted by the airline.

Meanwhile, in the wake of those devastating blows, Arnold Palmer Regional picked itself up 

and went out on its own to become the “poster child” for success under the SCASD program. 

The Westmoreland County Airport Authority used a $600,000 SCASD grant in 2004 to attract 

and negotiate a one-year deal with Northwest Airlines to operate daily scheduled flights 

through Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) in Michigan. The route, flown by Mesaba Airlines, 

started in April, 2005. A year later, Northwest agreed to sustain the service at its own risk.

This was a huge success for the airport and the communities it serves. The federal grant gave 

the communities the opportunity to prove to an airline that they were able to support 

sustained service without the need for additional safety nets. The airport proved that it could 

be a viable, profitable market, and the airline stayed for three more years without the revenue 

guarantees it claimed after its maiden year at Latrobe. That relationship – and thus, the grant 

funding – worked the way it was supposed to work.

Then came turbulence. Northwest Airlines filed for bankruptcy. Then it merged with Delta 

Airlines. The airport remained optimistic when Delta emerged the dominant partner and later 

came out to Latrobe to give its Mesaba counter a Delta-logo makeover. The communities were 

encouraged when the formerly red Saab 340s flying out of LBE began wearing Delta colors. A 

few months later, though, the nation slipped into a global recession and Delta service out of 

Latrobe wasn’t the only thing to spiral into a tailspin. Service was halted on July 31, 2009.

Air Service Development Efforts

Even prior to the departure of Mesaba/Northwest/Delta, the authority had been working

tirelessly to restore air service to LBE. While the airport continues to provide services to general 

aviation and business aircraft operators, the authority firmly believes that valuable connections

to national and global transportation networks are what truly open airports to the communities 

they serve. What makes airports priceless assets is the ability they afford the average citizen to 

walk in the front door and ultimately arrive at destinations around the globe. Arnold Palmer 

Regional had this capability, and was keenly aware of its value. However, due to circumstances 

beyond the authority’s control, it was lost.
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Second only to safety, reinstating air service has been a top priority for the authority. Toward 

this goal, the authority has aggressively pursued, met and negotiated with a number of airlines 

seeking service for LBE. The authority’s unwavering commitment to air service is demonstrated 

vividly in its standing offer to air carriers to waive all landing, ramp and terminal fees for a 

negotiated period if they will only provide reliable service.

Airport management has also teamed with representatives of more than 20 commercial service 

airports in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to seek new ways to improve and expand air 

service offerings in the region. The authority’s executive director, Gabriel E. Monzo Sr., cochairs the Pennsylvania Air Service Committee along with Eric Madden, Deputy Secretary of 

Aviation and Rail Freight for the state Department of Transportation. The committee and the 

authority also continually seek innovative ways to make the region’s airport facilities attractive 

airlines once again.

Air Service Needs/Deficiencies

The lack of an air carrier willing to step in and provide service is the only deficiency LBE has in 

terms of air service. 

The airport has an 8,224-foot-long runway and other well-maintained air field facilities critical 

to air carrier operations, including an air traffic control tower, passenger loading bridge and an 

efficient and comfortable terminal filled with attractive passenger amenities. The authority has 

also refrained from charging for parking, which offers an incentive to passengers considering 

other options. 

Due to the maintained presence of public charter flights, Transportation Safety Administration 

screening equipment remains in working order within the terminal. Screeners can be called 

back to staff the airport at a moment’s notice. The authority has also been more than willing to 

waive fees for airlines. There are fueling and maintenance services based on the field. 

Most importantly, there is a strong business and leisure travel community ready and willing to 

support the return of scheduled service the minute the planes pull up again to the loading 

bridge. The only deficiency that exists is the lack of an airline willing to step forward and 

provide the service sorely needed by the communities the airport serves.

Strategic Plan for Meeting Air Service Needs – Vision Airlines

The Airport Authority has negotiated with Vision Airlines to begin service to Orlando Sanford 

International Airport (SFB) in the fourth quarter of 2010. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 

growing airline has proposed three departures and three return flights per week on Boeing 737 

300 series aircraft, with seating for 148 passengers and low-cost fares. 

At full capacity, Vision could produce more than 21,000 passenger enplanements annually at 

LBE – that’s more than the annual number of passengers posted by Northwest Airlines and the 

airport’s charter flights combined over the past five years. 
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In the communities that LBE serves, public demand has historically been high for Orlando as a 

destination. 

The target audience for this initiative is a combination of business, educational institutions and 

leisure travelers in the airport’s service region. Marketing vehicles planned for this project 

include television, radio and print media outlets throughout the service region. The airport has 

a standing business relationship with West Media Inc. This professional Latrobe-based firm has 

historically marketed the airport’s service offerings successfully through media outlets that 

include, but are not limited to:

Television: Radio:

KDKA-TV (Pittsburgh) WCNS-AM (Latrobe area)

WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh) Froggy 95-FM (Johnstown, Indiana, Somerset counties)

WPXI-TV (Pittsburgh)

WJAC-TV (Johnstown)

Print:

Tribune-Review (Allegheny/Westmoreland counties

Latrobe Bulletin (Latrobe area)

Around Latrobe magazine (Latrobe area)

Latrobe Area Chamber of Commerce (community resource guide/membership directory)

Westmoreland Magazine

Internet marketing is also planned through West Media and the airport’s in-house web site.

Airport staff also does in-house promotional presentations at local trade shows.

The timetable for the Orlando service is tentatively set to begin in November, 2010. Marketing 

spending would begin immediately upon announcement of the service and receipt of funds.

Goals and objectives for this project are clear cut – to help ensure the success of this service at 

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport and to broaden the public awareness of any other potential air 

service offerings that may become available.

Finally, it must be made clear that this grant request differs significantly from the grant award 

the airport received six years ago, in 2004. That SCASD grant was used for revenue guarantees 

as negotiated with Northwest Airlines. In this request, the airport is not offering revenue 

guarantees. Rather, all of the funding outlined in this project – SCASD, local share matching 

funds and in-kind contributions and services – are entirely for the critical need of marketing this

new service to help ensure its success.

Additional Potentials: The Pittsburgh Connector

In addition to Vision Airlines, the airport has been key in developing an on-demand air taxi pilot 

program that would not only return scheduled service to LBE, but bolster enplanements at 

Pittsburgh International and other commercial service airports in and around the state, as well, 

by combining traffic support from surrounding communities through one airport.
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Channeled through the Pennsylvania Air Service Committee, the prototype program is called 

“the Pittsburgh Connector.” The concept is to create an air transportation network that would 

return regular flights from a number of participating airports to a central “hub” at PIT, which 

would afford passengers connections with most or all of the airlines that currently operate 

there. 

The plan – which has been proposed with considerable interest to several air service providers 

that are equipped to provide and interested in providing the service – would reinstate the 

system that had once thrived at the international airport under US Airways, but has since 

declined with the infusion of myriad “low-cost” carriers. The fortunate byproduct is that those 

low-cost carriers would be part of the program, now, rather than a scourge to it.

The Pittsburgh Connecter offers an efficient, logical solution to resurrecting air service in the 

entire region. Baggage systems have been designed to facilitate this project and gates are 

available to provide seamless service between the participating airports. This innovative plan 

offers a unique opportunity to create a working air service model that could be implemented in 

other regions that face similar struggles in providing reliable air service to communities that 

need it. Best of all, it can be developed and sustained on its own merit – not subsidized year 

after year, whether it works or not – and could serve as a model for rebuilding air service in 

other regions that have experienced similar air service losses.

More recently, the pilot program was revised and tailored to offer a solution to meet the 

demand of the transportation needs of the burgeoning Marcellus Shale gas recovery industry 

that has been flooding the region with the promise of an extended economic boom. Officials 

with Arnold Palmer Regional, Pittsburgh International and the Pennsylvania Air Service 

Committee have presented the proposed service to the Marcellus Shale Coalition. 

Public-Private Partnerships

Air service at Arnold Palmer Regional is the epitome of a public-private partnership.

The Westmoreland County Airport Authority is subsidized by annual operations allocations 

from the county general fund. The county commissioners also support airport with funding for 

special projects on a case-by-case basis. Air service projects receive the highest priority from 

the commissioners. The state Department of Transportation Bureau of Aviation has also been a 

staunch supporter of air service projects at Arnold Palmer Regional, offering matching funds for 

such needs as infrastructure improvements to help initiate, but not sustain new air service 

initiatives.

Private entities partner in these efforts in several ways. First are the local business 

communities, such as area chambers of commerce and larger industries individually who 

participate in air service needs surveys and generate support commitments that help the 

airport attract interest from air carriers. Local philanthropic foundations have also been 

generous in support for air service projects. 
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Finally, the air carriers themselves become partners with the airport to establish and maintain 

the service through various agreements. Air service operations at Arnold Palmer Regional are 

different than for many airports. This airport actually partners with the airlines by waiving all 

charges, such as landing and ramp fees, terminal rent and other services that typically generate 

revenue at other airports. 

Arnold Palmer Regional provides all of its facilities – baggage system, deicing equipment, 

passenger loading bridge, and others, including ample free parking – at no cost to the airline for 

a negotiated period in the interest of making the service profitable and self-sustaining. In 

exchange, the airline provides the service that the airport strives to provide for the 

communities it serves. It would be nice to derive revenue from air service. But the development 

of self-sustaining service for the communities is more important to the authority at present.

Funding Needed

The authority is seeking $500,000 in SCASD funding to be matched by a $125,000 (25%) local 

share cash contribution to create a $625,000 project budget to provide critical marketing 

dollars to successfully launch and brand the new service to the community. The airport is also 

contributing $83,980 in In-Kind contributions derived from waivers of standard facility fees and 

costs, including ramp and landing fees, terminal rents and costs for use of baggage system, 

deicing equipment and the passenger loading bridge. Total project estimated at $708,980.

Grant Program Funding Plan

Source Hard-Dollar

Marketing

Local Match $ 125,000 

SCASD Grant $ 500,000 

In-Kind Airport Contributions $ 83,980 

Totals $ 708,980 

There are no revenue guarantees asked or offered for the Vision service. The funding requested 

for that effort is purely for marketing the new service, and would be augmented by in-kind 

contributions, such as landing and ramp fees, terminal rents, facilities charges and others, 

detailed below.

In-Kind Contributions $ 83,980

Free Parking

Terminal Rent $ 3,000 $9.50 per square foot waived

Baggage System $ 14,400 (@ $50 per use) waived

Passenger Loading Bridge $ 7,200 (@ $50 per use) waived

Deicing Equipment $ 2,500 (@ $50 per use) waived

Landing Fees $ 56,880 (at $395 per landing) waived
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Community Monitoring

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport has always been looked upon as “a jewel in the crown” of the 

local community – from the chamber of commerce pulpits to the editorial pages of the local 

newspapers. And the authority has accepted this role for the airport of a true community asset. 

As such, there will be no lapse in rightful scrutiny of the levels of success these air service 

initiatives attain. 

In the past, airport administration has publicly reported passenger enplanement figures to the 

authority at its regular monthly public meetings. These meetings are attended by the press, 

which routinely reports those figures – good and bad – to the community at large.

Sustaining/Maintaining Air Service

The authority and all of its partners in these efforts will take any steps necessary and possible 

to assure that the service initiatives described in this application continue and maintain a selfsustainable presence of true benefit to the communities the airport serves.

Legal Sponsor – Westmoreland County Airport Authority.

Conclusion

The bottom line, the Westmoreland County Airport Authority is seeking and should receive 

funding through the SCASD program for one reason alone: it has proven that the program 

works, and it works at this airport.

Northwest AirLink service was attracted, negotiated and established at Arnold Palmer Regional 

Airport with assistance from a 2004 SCASD grant and the airport went on to keep that service 

flying for three subsequent years after the initial one-year revenue guarantee period expired. It 

is also mutually agreed that the service would still be profitable here were it not for the events 

and situations described earlier in this application.

The airport and its public-private network of support partnered with an airline to make it work 

for our communities until economic conditions and situations beyond the airport’s control 

rendered the service inoperable. This occurred as a result of nothing the airport did or didn’t 

do. That’s not an excuse. It’s simply a crystallization of the facts. 

And we’ve never been an airport that shrugs and admits defeat. We’ve stayed on our feet and 

we are still swinging. Now that economic conditions are stabilizing and airlines are once again 

looking to initiate service where it is profitable, the authority is positioning itself to resurrect 

the vitality and excitement of new air service for the region it serves. This request for funding 

assistance is critical to the authority’s ability to level the playing field for a deserving 

community. We ask the department to grant us another chance to prove once again that 

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in southwestern Pennsylvania is precisely the type of market 

that can render the Small Community Air Service Development grant program successful. 
3975 Johns Creek Ct.

Suite 100A 

Suwanee, GA 30024 

Phone: 770-813-4200 

Direct: 770-813-4207 

Fax: 770- 813-4292 

E-mail: mholliday@visionairlines.com 

Online: visionairlines.com 

August 19, 2010 

Mr. Gabriel E. Monzo Sr. 

Executive Director 

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport 

Westmoreland County Airport Authority 

148 Aviation Lane 

Latrobe PA, 15650 

Re: Vision Airlines’ Letter of Interest / Arnold Palmer Regional Airport

Dear Mr. Monzo: 

On behalf of Vision Airlines, I want to express our company’s strong interest in providing air 

carrier service to and from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE) for Westmoreland and its 

surrounding counties. It is our belief that Westmoreland County’s population of 370,000 combined with

the catchment of adjacent counties, Vision Airlines can build a sufficient customer base that would 

enable it to offer low-fare service three (3) times weekly to Orlando-Sanford, Florida. In addition, lowfare service from Latrobe, Pennsylvania to other leisure destinations may be viable. 

As you are aware, the economic environment facing air service development today is 

challenging. Vision Airlines is looking to communities such as yours to assist it in reducing operating 

costs and actively promote new services. We recognize that opportunities for local funding may be 

limited; however, support through a Small Community Air Service Development grant may provide the 

funding Vision Airlines needs in order to launch an Orlando-Sanford air service. This service would not 

only re-introduce regularly scheduled air service to your community, but also begin the process of 

building enplanements back to the 1990s peak level of over 60,000. 

Vision Airlines understands that a productive public / private partnership is the cornerstone of 

successful new air service. Together we can rebuild dependable air service and provide low-fare air 

travel to the citizens of Westmoreland and its surrounding counties, for business and pleasure. 
3975 Johns Creek Ct., Suite 100 Suwanee, GA 30024 Phone: (770) 813-4200 Fax: (770) 813-4292

We look forward to building a relationship with the Westmoreland County Airport Authority and 

the community it serves. 

Please contact me should you have any questions. 

 Very truly yours, 

 Matthew Holliday 

 General Manager of Packaging 

MH/tjw