MOUNT ALTON — An official of Southern Airways Express, the low-cost airline that serves Bradford Regional Airport with daily non-stop flights to Pittsburgh International Airport, on Wednesday presented the airline’s 2017 end-of-the-year report for Bradford to the airport authority.
In his overview, Mark Cestari, chief commercial officer, noted that only about one-third of Bradford traffic is local to Pittsburgh and the majority of traffic appears to be business travelers, both of which are contrary to earlier assumptions and observations. Additionally, Bradford passengers are experiencing no problem finding and booking with low-cost carriers at Pittsburgh.
Cestari said that 34.5 percent of the Bradford traffic travels just to Pittsburgh, while the remaining 65.5 percent connect with flights to other destinations. American Airlines and Southwest make up more than half of the connections.
After Pittsburgh, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Houston are the top five destinations for Bradford passengers, according to the report.
While overall passenger traffic was down for 2017, October was about level with 2016, and November and December exceeded those months in 2016, signaling a positive trend and a recovered market for 2017. August and September trailed 2016, but this could be attributed to the delayed start of SAEs Bradford Campus Connector program.
Passenger enplanements recorded by zip codes show Bradford with 21.7 percent, with Kane and Smethport tied with 5.8 percent.
Since commercial air service is no longer available at the Chautauqua-Jamestown Airport in New York, Cestari said SAE has an outreach program to attract passengers from the Warren area.
Looking to 2018, Cestari said, “We are now in the best position as bookings are up, the pilot shortage is corrected and we’ve hired the best staff.”
In his airline report for January, Ryan Dach, Bradford station manager and SAEs director of stations, that there were 207 enplanements and 226 deplanements for a daily average of 8.01 passengers per day. At the same time, 23 flights were cancelled — 22 due to weather and one for mechanical reasons. “This decrease in passengers was due largely to the airport being closed for five consecutive days due to very icy conditions.”
Airport director Alicia Dankesreiter explained that while the airport has the equipment to clear snow from the runways, the chemicals needed to melt the ice are cost prohibitive for a small airport. The airport administration plans to seek grant money for purchasing the material.
Since there was no authority meeting in January, the annual elections were held Wednesday with all the current officers being reelected. They are McKean County Commissioner Clifford Lane, chairman; Ron Dankesreiter of Cameron County, vice-chairman; John Satterwhite of McKean County, secretary; and Barbara Cummings of McKean County, treasurer.
The authority members voted to award the annual audit to the lone bidder.
Dankesreiter, in her report, noted that the position of the airport’s facilities manager is now vacant. Ultimately, it is the authority’s decision when or if this vacancy will be filled.
Following the public agenda, the authority members met in an executive session to discuss personnel matters.
