South Bend airport gets federal airline grant

3:27 p.m. EDT, September 27, 2011

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation is giving grants of $750,000 to South Bend Regional Airport and $500,000 to Evansville Regional Airport to improve airline service.

The South Bend airport will use its grant and $475,000 in additional funds to establish roundtrip flights to Denver via Frontier Airlines. The Evansville airport will use its grant and $100,000 in additional funds to provide guaranteed revenue to AirTran Airways to establish low-fare service to the airline's Baltimore/Washington hub.

Evansville and South Bend were among 29 communities across the country receiving a total of $15 million from the Small Community Air Service Development Program.

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Skyrat at 9:00 AM September 28, 2011

First off they will get enough people to want to connect in Denver. The "C' site means nothing, It is happening to other airports and doesn't hinder their air service at all. The tower hours can be adjusted to accomodate this. This air service will compliment the airlines that are already here. When United flew this route they would have avg. loads of 85 passengers, not enough for a B727-100 to make a profit but that would equal a full E190 aircraft that Frontier will use on the route. The airport is working on Dallas flights and restoring service by American Eagle. AA and Frontier are not in the best financial shape but for Frontier (F9) this can be a win-win situation.

KevinMerasco at 9:34 PM September 27, 2011

Yeah and the south bend aiport is being downgraded to a "C" site by the FAA due to the lack of flights. Which means it's losing weather observers which means no flights will land or take off, like they do now, when the tower is closed. So if you think there are canceled flight now just wait. Also where are they going to get enough passangers to fly to Denver. I give the service a year max before it goes under. Why not to midway or Dallas? I could see those flights but to Denver?

WowReallyUnbelievable at 5:00 PM September 27, 2011

Not cancelling so many flights would be the best way to improve this airport! This past summer my family had our flights cancelled both departing and returning causing us to lose an entire day at our destination which was the first real vacation we had taken in ten years. We then heard similar stories from so many people that we decided it is best to just drive or take a bus to Chicago airports because you will end up doing just that anyhow.

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South Bend airport gets federal airline grant

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