BECKLEY — Bipartisan legislation steered through the Senate translates into some $2 million for Raleigh County Memorial Airport for a two-year extension of the Essential Air Service program.

In fact, airport Manager Tom Cochran pointed out Wednesday, bids are being taken through April 19 through the Department of Transportation.

The program was launched after the airline industry was deregulated during the Reagan administration and came through the efforts of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., as a means of beefing up flight service at small, rural airports.

On another matter, the Beckley airport is probably about two years away from installing an air traffic control tower, since the facility is still enmeshed in studies and all the paperwork that attends to them.

Under the guidance of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the Senate this week agreed to increase the EAS funding by $48 million, giving it a total of $175 million annually. At the same time, the measure also sets aside $35 million a year for the Small Community Air Service Development Program.

Cochran said both that and the EAS have given the airport valuable dividends.

Colgan Air holds the existing contract at the Beckley airport, one that has proven beneficial to local commuters, Cochran said.

“It is something for rural airports like we are,” he said of the EAS.

“It gives us certainly a great connection into Washington for international traffic, and their coach here is United, which is also a major carrier out of Washington. It’s a good connection to get you anywhere in the world you need to go.

“It’s not just for the in and out of passengers, but it’s a good economic development opportunity that we have that service and that kind of contract. When a lot of marketable businesses come here to look, one of the first questions they ask me is, ‘Do you have air service and where to?’ The connections we now have are good.”

With the plane based in Beckley, a commuter can board it at 6 a.m., fly into the nation’s capital and be headed back home on a 2 p.m. flight.

Under the development program, Cochran said his airport and Greenbrier Valley near Lewisburg partnered three years ago and by working in tandem managed to market air service at both facilities.

Whether the two will continue this strategy isn’t known, but the Beckley facility hopes to land some grant money that is distributed to some 40 airports around the nation.

“Our (EAS) contract, after it’s all completed, should start the first of August and puts us in kind of the right time frame to be going after other money to help market them.”

New financial incentives are embedded in the EAS contracts to encourage carriers to offer improved service with the prospects of long-term contracts if they are proven to be in the public’s interest, Rockefeller said.

“Everyone, everywhere, needs to be connected to our national aviation system,” the senator said.

“In West Virginia alone, aviation represents billions of the state’s gross domestic product, and directly and indirectly employs tens of thousands of people. That’s why I’ve worked for years to help expand and develop West Virginia’s air transportation infrastructures — so that our state and every community can experience the economic benefits.”

Cochran isn’t sure if his airport will be working with the Lewisburg facility on the marketing phase, saying, “They’re doing big things with the casino (at The Greenbrier). We may have to do something as a standalone, which we can do.”

A proposed tower looms as a major component of the proposed Boy Scouts of America national center in Fayette County to provide the organization the support it needs when thousands begin arriving for various activities there, Cochran said.

“We’re just doing the studies and the paperwork, and the Federal Aviation Administration is giving us a grant for an update of our master plan,” he said.

“That has to be included in that. It’s a long, drawn-out process. It would be a couple of years, probably, if we are selected, before we would see anything happen. It is in our future planning of the airport, definitely.”

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter
— E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
March 24, 2010

Airports in Beckley and Lewisburg are targeted for a combined $4.4 million in new federal funding to continue the Essential Air Service program that guarantees flights and affordable prices for individual and business interests.

Managers of both airports view such funding as “critical.”

“If it weren’t for the EAS program, right now, we wouldn’t have any service,” said Tom Cochran, manager of Raleigh County Memorial Airport. “We’re aggressively working toward anything we can supplement that service with. The key to maintaining that service is use.”

Cochran’s airport is earmarked for $2.1 million, while Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg would get $2.3 million in an appropriations bill sent to the White House for the president’s approval, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., announced Wednesday.

“Our local airports are economic multipliers for our region’s overall business forecast,” the 3rd District congressman said. “This federal investment pays local dividends time and again, returning federal revenues through increased economic activity. Local businesses and travelers are equally served through convenience and more affordable flights.”

EAS was created in 1979 to help smaller airports sustain flight service after the airline industry was deregulated.

“The concern was about smaller airports that really don’t have enough critical mass to do centralization,” Greenbrier Valley Airport manager Jerry O’Sullivan said. “That’s what happened. This money came in to assure these airports would continue to have connections to the national airports system.”

O’Sullivan said the service is vital in his region given the revitalization of The Greenbrier, since many guests are from out of the area and travel on national airlines. What’s more, the service accommodates local businesses such as ABB and B.F. Goodrich in their needs to fly personnel back and forth, he said.

“Westvaco uses our service because it gets excellent connections through Cleveland to Houston,” he said.

Colgan has held the EAS contract at the Beckley facility since 1991, and with the arrangement due to expire in August, bids likely will be sought in February or March, Cochran noted.

“We’re looking forward to seeing that go out for bid again,” he said. “Certainly, we’re very appreciative of the program being viable at this point.”

Colgan runs the program through United Express.

“We have a larger airplane now than what we had a couple of years ago,” Cochran said. “We’re looking for continued improvements. As a matter of fact, we’re starting tomorrow a non-stop service to Washington. We had a one-stop prior. The non-stop will be important to us. It’s an hour flight. It connects us to several hundred United connections out of Dulles.”

Efforts are continually being made to keep prices competitive and schedules working for the public’s benefit, Cochran said. “Right now, we have an early out and a late evening back in,” he said.

“It’s a great trip for a one-day business trip. Or, if you’re just making a segment of connecting flights, it’s certainly good for that. It works good for a rural area to get into our nation’s capital within an hour and being able to do business and get back home the same day.”

Cochran said the commercial aspect has been a major boon for the airport over the years. "We’re looking at other features so that we can start promoting ourselves in different ways,” he added. “Commercial service is part of the economic development improvements we need in this area.”

By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter

December 17, 2009

New Air Service

By Courtney D. Clark

Register-Herald Reporter

Raleigh County Memorial Airport held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to celebrate new, nonstop air service to Somerset, Ky., and Baltimore-Washington International.

The growing taxi airline, Locair, will add Beckley to its list of stops en route to BWI, beginning Sept. 14.

A Locair plane landed in Beckley Friday morning, and the airline’s general manager, Nathan Vallier, came by to share information about how the airline decided to implement the new service.

“We thought, ‘Let’s drop into Beckley,’” Vallier said. “You guys are right in the perfect area where we can draw from people because you have all the highways here and you’re a commercial center of south West Virginia.”

Locair has been flying out of Florida since 1993, primarily as a charter airline. “Locair hopes to be able to come in here and offer additional service and see if we can emulate what we are doing in Somerset, which is drawing people from about two hours away onto our flights to D.C.,” he continued. “We hope to see you on our flights, and more importantly, we hope to get more people using the airport. That’s one of our goals, to augment what’s already here.”

“It’s an exciting opportunity opening for us,” Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said. “When you look at the BWI market and the revenue generated there for the state of Maryland — over $5 billion a year — and when you look at the connections that are available from BWI, it truly allows access from southern West Virginia to the major markets of the world. Now, from here in Beckley, you can not only go directly to Dulles, but you can go to BWI, and from there, the opportunities are endless.”

Locair is a new type of airline, offering a lot of flexibility to those taking advantage of its services. “We’ve been called a boutique operator because we’re not like everybody else,” Vallier said. “This is a normally 19-seat plane, but there are only nine seats in it. So you get three feet of leg room inside, which is an amazing ride.

“And we don’t nickel and dime people. We don’t charge to take their money, we don’t charge for reservations and we allow pets on board our aircraft at no charge.”

Locair allows 70 pounds of luggage per person and up to three bags. The airline also offers a child’s discount on all fares and is featuring a buy one get one free promotion through Sept. 14. “Right now the fair is $76 each way, so it’s about $160 round trip for everything, and your friend just pays taxes,” Vallier said. “It’s an amazing deal.”

Airport Manager Tom Cochran welcomed the new carrier into Beckley and asked the community for its support. “We’re not trying to do a JFK airport here,” Cochran said. “We’re trying to build and continue the infrastructure process to make this airport supportive of the community. Each one of us has a part in this, and the support that we are asking of the community is something that can certainly lead Locair into other destinations down the road.”

Beckley Mayor Emmett Pugh said he also hopes to have a long and profitable relationship for both the airport and Locair. “The airport authority, along with Tom Cochran, has been really pro-active, continuing to provide expanded services,” he said. “But we can only do so much. We can provide those services and we can give the traveling public those services. Now it’s up to the business community and the consumer to utilize the services that we offer, and if we don’t, then shame on us.”

— E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

By Jackie Ayres
Register-Herald Reporter

Southern West Virginia can expect to see thousands of Boy Scouts in town year-round when the Boy Scouts of America opens its new National Scouting Center and high-adventure base in the Mount Hope-Glen Jean area, officials say.

As scout officials work with the Fayette County Commission to rezone the 10,000-plus acres of land at the Garden Ground Mountain site, a local airport says it is also preparing for a big boost in business.

“I think this is a very positive economic opportunity for the community, as well as for this airport,” said Tom Cochran, manager of Raleigh County Memorial Airport.

“The airport is geographically sitting in a perfect position to be a great support to the Boy Scouts in what will be going on with this new venture that’s in development.”

The airport will be even more accessible to the new high-adventure base when the first phase of the Z-Way project is completed.

“The first phase is going to connect right into the access route that goes into the new Boy Scout location,” Cochran explained.

“We’re only about 20-25 minutes driving time from the site to the airport. For the past few years, we’ve tried to develop the airport in a way to accommodate the kind of traffic and population they would be bringing in.”

The airport is in the midst of an $800,000 paving project in its corporate aviation area. Next month, the airport will begin another $800,000 improvement in lighting and navigational aids on its primary runway.

“We have resurfaced our runways, and we’ve also built the weight-bearing capacity up on those runways so we can accommodate much larger aircraft,” Cochran said.

Runways at the airport have recently been utilized by whitewater rafting companies to handle 757 aircraft carrying more than 150 passengers.

“The real beauty of all of this is that we have the expandable land. We can expand on the length of our runways, and also parking areas for additional, larger aircraft,” Cochran explained.

“Just the economics of this airport give us the opportunity to stimulate interest in our present air carrier, as well as the competition with any kind of economic growth.”

Cochran says the infrastructure at the airport is already in place to support the large capacity of visitors once the new high-adventure base is complete.

“The opportunities are just very wide in range of what we can do to help service this new venture,” he said.

“I think this certainly gives us an opportunity to say that some great choices have been made that people are looking at West Virginia in a different way now. We’re a state that’s a beautiful place to live — and a beautiful place to play. The outside world is starting to see some of these advantages.”

— E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it