x
Breaking News
More () »

Airport Officials Announce Flights to Pittsburgh

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT — A new carrier is coming to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Luzerne County. Coming in the ...
avp

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT -- A new carrier is coming to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport in Luzerne County. Coming in the spring of next year, you'll be able to fly directly to Pittsburgh on flights from Regional Sky.

"It has been more than a decade since this airport had direct service to Pittsburgh. Since that service went away, most people had to drive five hours from here to get to Pittsburgh," Carl Beardsley said.

Since then, officials say people in the business community have wanted those flights to come back.

"It'll hold up to eight seats each. We'll do two flights a day and as we grow we'll expand that service with larger aircrafts," said Jim Gallagher, president of Regional Sky.

The average cost round trip for a ticket is expected to be about $400.

Airport officials say they're targeting people who need to get to Pittsburgh for business.

For Jeff Barrett, CEO of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the flight is worth the price, especially considering players here can get called up in Pittsburgh at the last minute.

"Now we have the opportunity of getting them a good night's rest, getting them on the flight the next morning, joining the team out in Pittsburgh for their practices," Barrett explained.

Others say $400 to get to the western part of the state is little too much.

"It would probably be a little bit more than I would want to spend for that trip, so, yeah, that's kind of a lot," said Emma Black of Clarks Summit.

All of this is happening at a time when the airport is losing service from Allegiant Air.

An email was actually sent out to customers recently saying that they could still book a flight through August, but in fact, that was an error on Allegiant's part. Allegiant confirms that service will be ending here in January.

"Big picture, I would think it would probably affect a lot of people, especially people going south for winter, stuff like that. A lot people do leave here," said Molly Pash of Scranton.

A schedule for these flights will be announced next month.

Check the status of your flight with the WNEP Flight Tracker.

Before You Leave, Check This Out