Workers prepare a Contour Airlines jet for boarding ahead of its inaugural flight on Tuesday at the Altoona-Blair County Airport. Mirror photo by Rachel Foor
MARTINSBURG — The Altoona-Blair County Airport has entered the jet age.
“This will mark the first time in the 73-year history of passenger service at the airport that we will offer jet service,” Airport Manager Tracy Plessinger said Tuesday.
The change comes with Contour Airlines assuming daily passenger service under the federal Alternate Essential Air Service program. Contour provides jet service to Philadelphia through an interline agreement with American Airlines, Plessinger said.
The service includes 12 round trip flights to Philadelphia a week, according to a press release.
“As an American Airlines interline partner, Contour offers travelers the ability to ticket seamlessly from their originating airport through a connecting hub to global destinations,” a press release read.
Workers at the Altoona-Blair County Airport load luggage onto Contour Airlines’ inaugural jet service flight on Tuesday in Martinsburg. Mirror photo by Rachel Foor
The jet service will differ from the airport’s previous offering of prop plane service. The jets are larger, faster and more comfortable, Plessinger said.
“They fly directly to Philadelphia, rather than someone having to go to Pittsburgh and then take another connection or buy another ticket,” he said.
Plessinger believes this new service will benefit not only Blair County but central Pennsylvania as well, as it provides more convenient and reliable access for tourists to visit or locals to travel.
Additionally, whereas prop planes usually had about eight or nine seats, the jets have 30, with what Contour CEO Matt Chaifetz calls “first class leg room.”
They will also have a bathroom, flight attendant, drinks and snacks, he said.
In his experience, Chaifetz said when an airport goes from an eight- or nine-seater prop plane to a jet, it “typically shows an increase in traffic.”
The airport also welcomed Avis, a nationally branded rental car company, offering local and one-way rentals to airport passengers and community residents.
“We were in discussion with the airport authority, and Tracy said ‘hey, you know what, this is the perfect time, we’re bringing in jet service,'” Avis Territory Manager Tom Troxell said. “We were discussing ways to make that happen. We’re in a market right now where it’s hard to buy cars — manufacturing and labor is hard to come by.”
To celebrate these new additions, Contour is offering an introductory fare of $49 each way when purchased by Oct. 31.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.
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