Allegiant Air

The federal program that provides Hagerstown Regional Airport with a $1.2 million annual subsidy for air service could be at risk. The local airport has relied on federal Essential Air Service funding since the program's inception in 1978. The $200 million national program subsidizes air service to and from communities far from large airports. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate approved a Federal Aviation Administration budget with a new parameter for the EAS program that would eliminate Hagerstown.

After about 15 years as director of Hagerstown Regional Airport, Carolyn S. Motz has announced she plans to retire at the end of the year. "I just felt it was really a good time for me," Motz said Thursday, explaining she has been eligible to retire for about a year and already had put it off longer than she planned. The Washington County Commissioners agreed Tuesday that staff should prepare to seek a new director and said the vacancy presented an opportunity to consider restructuring the airport.

HAGERSTOWN -- Allegiant Air's final flight from Hagerstown Regional Airport took off Friday morning, and already airport officials are working to replace it with a similar service, airport business development manager Greg Larsen said. "As sad as it was today to see that airplane leaving, Allegiant has given us some very strong tools to attract a follow-on carrier, and I think that will happen," Larsen said. Airport officials "had at least one conversation" with another airline interested in offering service to Orlando, possibly starting early next year or sooner, he said.

"If you read The Herald-Mail on Thursday, the 1st of July, 2010, you will see that all the Republicans has once again stuck it to the working man. Every one of them voted against extending unemployment benefits to the millions of the unemployed. They have done this for ... they would have all voted for it. I know that a great many of you are Republicans. If you continue to vote for these people, you are getting what you deserve. " - Halfway "I think it's a pretty sad day for our country when the federal government of our country decides to, intends to sue Arizona over this immigration law and side with Mexico.

HAGERSTOWN -- Allegiant Air is pulling its service out of Hagerstown Regional Airport this summer, less than two years after it began offering flights. The last day for direct flights from Hagerstown to Orlando-Sanford Regional Airport on the Las Vegas-based airline is July 19, the company said Friday in a statement. Customers with Allegiant reservations for dates after July 22 will be contacted for a full refund, the company said in an e-mailed statement. Allegiant Air President Andrew C. Levy cited a lack of market demand for the reason the company was halting the service.

Allegiant Air will resume its service between Hagerstown Regional Airport and the Orlando, Fla., area on Friday, according to a company spokeswoman. The airline suspended its service out of Hagerstown Regional Airport from Aug. 17 until Thursday as a business decision. "We seasonally pull down service throughout our system to Florida," Allegiant Air spokeswoman Tyri Squyres wrote in an e-mail. "There is very little demand from customers for flights to Florida in the early fall.

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HAGERSTOWN -- Kay Baker flew in from Tyler, Texas, to see her niece. Steve Berner was able to get back to Hagerstown quicker to handle a family medical emergency. Kay Cannady came from Tulsa, Okla., to visit her granddaughter. The three passengers were among those who took advantage of the first day of commercial air service between Hagerstown and Baltimore being offered by Cape Air. Hagerstown lost commercial air service in September 2007 when a federal Essential Air Service subsidy expired.

Headwinds can be good things for airplanes, but not so much for airports. The Hagerstown Regional Airport has suffered from so much facial buffeting over the past several years that it was about due - and deserving - of a breeze at its back. Had I been a Hagerstown airport administrator, I would have given up. That's it. I'd have gotten out of there and gone into phosphate manufacturing or something. How do we count the troubles, some self-inflicted, some beyond local control?