Officials at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport hope work to widen and strengthen the runway will not only improve conditions for existing flights, but also open the door for increased frequency of flights and additional destinations for passengers.

“The primary reason is safety,” Westmoreland County Airport Authority Executive Director Gabe Monzo said of the runway improvement. But, he added, “The outfall of that is we have an increased chance to increase the flights and (runway) usage overall. It’s going to augment the marketing of the airport.”

He said the authority, which operates the Unity airport, has made ongoing inquiries about increasing flights with the facility’s sole commercial carrier, Florida-based Spirit Airlines. As of late October, he said, “There’s nothing solid right now.”

Spokesman Stephen Schuler said Spirit is “always evaluating travel demand trends and analyzing our destination research to determine the most successful routes.” On Thursday, he was checking with airline officials “to see what the runway expansion could mean for Spirit.”

With the help of an $11.1 million federal grant, the airport authority intends to widen the Arnold Palmer runway from 100 feet to 150 feet, adding a 25-foot strip on each edge.

Initial work is expected to extend through August of next year, with crews widening the northwest edge of the runway — the side farthest from the terminal building — during nighttime closures.

A complete shutdown of the runway for 16 days is planned, in September 2020, while contractor Golden Triangle Construction widens the opposite edge of the runway and installs new navigation lights.

In a related effort, the authority plans to strengthen the runway, by adding a three-inch layer of asphalt.

According to Monzo, a wider runway will provide a broader target for pilots landing during inclement weather while the strengthening project will bring the runway up to modern standards for the 163,000-pound Airbus planes Spirit flies in and out of the airport on routes to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and destinations in Florida.

Monzo explained the airport operates under a general waiver that allows intermittent flights by craft the size of the Airbus. Strengthening the runway will allow it to withstand more frequent flights by Spirit or other potential carriers without beginning to deteriorate.

Spirit schedules an average of three flights per day at Arnold Palmer Regional. “If we wanted to get up to six flights a day, the strengthening is an important part of that,” Monzo said.

Recent installation of a second passenger boarding bridge means the airport can comfortably accommodate two flights scheduled in close proximity. The authority also has completed a plan for potential expansion of the terminal, if funding becomes available.

Spirit, which began operations at the Unity airport in February 2011, tried flights to three other destinations farther west, but each eventually was dropped.

A connection to the Dallas, Texas, area was offered from June 2013 to April 2014. Flights to Las Vegas and Chicago were added in April 2015 and May 2015, respectively — each dropped in November of that year.

Monzo said he considered the Las Vegas route the most promising of the three and noted it is most often mentioned by airport patrons.

“Everybody wants Vegas back,” he said. “Everybody liked that.”

Earlier this year, Spirit surpassed 2 million passengers served at Arnold Palmer Regional.

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