JetBlue mum on post-merger service at Arnold Palmer airport

Arnold Palmer Regional Airport enters the holiday travel season shrouded in turbulence.

The airport is forging ahead with expansion plans despite passenger traffic plummeting this year — all while the lone airline serving the Unity facility is poised to merge with another airline that has failed to commit to retaining a presence in Westmoreland County.

All that is in play are a $20 million expansion plan, dozens of jobs, millions of dollars in revenue and the heartbeat of viable county tourism.

The expansion project comes at the behest of the federal Transportation Security Administration, which has said the cramped facilities that sometimes result in passenger lines forming outside the Palmer terminal must be upgraded.

Bids for the 32,000-square-foot expansion are scheduled to open Jan. 11, Scott Kunselman, Westmoreland County Airport Authority engineer with McFarland Johnson, said at the authority meeting Tuesday. At least four general contractors have expressed an interest in the project and a pre-bid meeting was held Tuesday, Kunselman said.

Expanding the terminal will make the passenger processing area about four times the existing space, and the waiting room for passengers will be about three times larger than the current space, said Gabe Monzo, the authority’s executive director.

Merger in limbo

Meanwhile, all eyes are on a federal judge in Boston who will rule whether JetBlue Airways can proceed with its $3.8 billion merger with Spirit Airlines, which operates out of Palmer.

Spirit still offers service to Orlando, Fla., and seasonal flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C., from the Unity airport. A loss of Spirit flights to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Fla., resulted in a drop in passengers arriving and departing from Palmer to 142,635 through November. That is down from 234,563 for the same period in 2022, according to the Airport Traffic Record.

The trial in the antitrust case that the U.S. Department of Justice brought against JetBlue’s merger plans concluded last week in Boston. The Biden administration’s Justice Department challenged the proposed merger on the grounds that it will reduce competition among the low-fare discount airlines and result in higher ticket prices for passengers.

Westmoreland officials have not heard from JetBlue leaders in about three months, Monzo said.

JetBlue has yet to reveal whether it will continue to operate flights to Spirit’s destinations or whether it will reduce the number of airports it serves. A spokesperson for JetBlue did not respond to a request for a comment this week.

Linda Eicher of Greensburg said Wednesday, while awaiting the lone Spirit flight of the day, she hopes it continues with flights to Orlando because her daughter lives in Orlando and works at Walt Disney World.

“It’s very convenient. If it (Spirit) were not here, I don’t think I would be going there (Orlando) as often. It makes it possible for her (the daughter) to come home,” Eicher said.

The airport authority is at a disadvantage when competing for airline carriers, Monzo said, because the airport, about 55 miles from Pittsburgh International, is not eligible for the federal Essential Air Service Program. That program offers incentives to airlines that provide service to rural areas that lie 75 miles from a regional airport.

Airport officials are making plans for the future, with or without Spirit and JetBlue.

While JetBlue, Spirit and the Justice Department battle the case in court, Monzo said he has “put feelers out” to other airlines, providing them with information about the airport.

”I don’t think anything will move until it (the court case) is settled,” including any decision by other airlines to serve the Unity airport, Monzo said.

Even if the merger is approved and there are no court challenges, Monzo said, the merger will take some time to be implemented.

Bids to be opened

At least four general contractors have expressed an interest in the expansion project, Kunselman said.

The expanded terminal will have two gates for passengers and a much larger waiting room.

Construction is continuing on a new equipment storage building, which is expected to be finished in January. That part of the project, which was necessary because an old storage hangar was razed, will cost about $2 million.

The first phase of the expansion is expected to be finished by 2025, with the entire project set for completion in 2028.