The airline servicing Bradford Regional Airport is still working
on changing hub cities from Pittsburgh to Washington.

“It’s still in the works, but just taking some time,” Airport
Director Tom Frungillo said on Wednesday following a meeting of the
Bradford Regional Airport Authority. “They (Colgan Air Inc.) are
still dedicated to it.”

Colgan services the airport under USAirways Express. Local
officials are hoping the change in hub cities will increase
enplanements in Bradford and wean the airport off the federal
Essential Air Service program.

Officials said the airline has also been looking at reaching a
code share agreement with United Airlines, which was recently
awarded a non-stop route between Washington and Bejing, China.

Frungillo and other airport officials had a conference call with
Colgan representatives on Wednesday afternoon to receive an update
on where the changeover stands.

In addition to the change in hub cities, the airline has also
been dealing with being bought by a Tennessee company, Pinnacle
Airlines Corp. Colgan officials previously said the transaction
will not impact customers in Bradford.

“With the Pinnacle transaction and dealing with other stations
(airports), we are just one of the items they have been working
on.”

Frungillo said moving into a large airport like Dulles in
Washington also brings about various stepping stones, including
looking at available spaces for the flights to arrive at.

“Getting the right space is the key,” Frungillo said.

By securing the optimum gate for arrival of flights, travelers
might not have to face a long journey through the terminal to reach
a connecting flight if traveling through to another city.

“We have and will be getting regular updates on the situation,”
Frungillo said.

In the fall of 2005, Colgan officials announced the airline was
looking to renegotiate its two-year contract under EAS with the
U.S. Department of Transportation due to a decline in passenger
levels and a hike in fuel costs.

Two airlines, Colgan and RegionsAir, applied to the DOT to
service Bradford and nearby Jamestown, N.Y. The agency originally
chose RegionsAir to provide the service, principally because of a
lower subsidy rate.

However, when RegionsAir experienced difficulty in providing
service to its new markets – the start times in Bradford were
stalled on three separate occasions – and through the urging of
local airport officials, the DOT eventually changed its decision
and presented Colgan with the service. Shortly afterward, officials
announced the change in hub cities from Pittsburgh to
Washington.

In other news, Frungillo said the Automated Flight Service
Station in Altoona, which the airport uses to provide weather
briefings and flight planning services to pilots, will be closing
soon.

Pilots in Bradford will now be directed to a hub station in
Leesburg, Va. – one of three such facilities under the Federal
Aviation Administration across the country. The other two are
located in Fort Worth, Texas, and Prescott, Ariz., according to the
FAA’s Web site.

In October of 2005, Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract and
assumed responsibility for providing flight services across the
continental United States. The firm has gone about consolidating
the network of 60 Flight Service Stations nationwide in an effort
to reduce costs and modernize the service.

Also, the development of a proposed Pennsylvania Army National
Guard armory is “moving along,” according to Frungillo.

The project should be going out for bid soon. It is listed as
one of 11 readiness centers statewide that are scheduled to be
built this year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of
General Services Web site.

The current cost of the project is $6.7 million; the armory will
take up a total of 32,497-square-feet.

Officials are still waiting for the release of federal funding,
which is already in the pipeline and will likely be triggered
soon.

The armory will be located near the access road into the
airport.

Meanwhile, authority Chairman Clifford Lane recognized the
changes occurring on the board – member and County Administrator
Richard Casey will be leaving soon to take a job in North Carolina
and Rob Huber of Bradford has been appointed to fill the seat of
former member Ken Wingo. Huber has also served on the airport’s
advisory board.