One airline is adding several new flights, another is growing operations, and Augusta Regional Airport (AGS) is preparing a grant to secure a third airline focused on a major Midwest city.
American Airlines informed airport management that it will be adding additional service in May and August. It will connect to the Charlotte hub, so it will not add a destination city, but will increase capacity.
“They’re going to add more overnight flights, so they’ll have more of a peak,” Airport Executive Director Herbert Judon, Jr. explained to members of the Augusta Aviation Commission. “They’ll have four planes that will park here overnight and be what they call “right starts,” kind of early departures in the morning. So, there’ll be the Charlotte flight, DC, Dallas, and then another Charlotte flight that departs early morning.”
That will bring American to 10 departures and 10 arrivals a day. Judon said they have worked on coordinating gate usage, now that American will have four flights and Delta Airlines will have two that will be at the airport overnight.
Delta has also notified the airport about upcoming changes in its operations. Currently, Delta contracts with a company called Unifi to run the local station.
“Starting in June, they will have a full Delta station here for their above wing, so their ticket counter and their boarding counters,” said Judon. “They call it a blended operation. So, it’ll be a Delta operation that handles their ticket counter, and UniFi will continue to be here for their below-the-wing. So, we’ll have two quasi Delta managers, the UniFi manager and the Delta manager.”
Judon said there is nothing concrete; Delta has not announced anything in terms of expansion in terms of their flight offerings right now; however, growing the management operations could be good news.
On the topic of attracting a third airline, Judon said Diane Johnson, Director of Business Development at Augusta Regional Airport, is finalizing the request for a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) grant. It is designed to help smaller communities address air service and airfare issues. This is the same grant that helped launch the direct service to Washington, D.C.
“We’re targeting Chicago service,” said Judon. “We’ve got some community support with this grant. It has a community match component to it. That grant application, I think Diane’s goal is to get it out before this week, just to kind of give us a little buffer. We’ll see what happens with that, but that could help us as well.”
All of this is happening as the very visible construction moves forward on a new private terminal and hangar at AGS. Ohio-based NetJets, a leader in private aviation, announced it is behind the project.
Judon told ABD it can serve to raise the profile of AGS as it works to grow.
“I think it can only help,” he said. “It shows that we’re growing. And I’ve seen in some other airports, when you have a major company that comes, you’ll have these other businesses that will kind of piggyback off of it. So, it’s another cog in our growth, especially from our business and economic development perspective.”
NetJets will use the new terminal and hangar during the two weeks surrounding the Masters Tournament. It will be available to the airport to park aircraft outside of those two weeks. That can boost the airport’s revenue from landing fees, fuel sales, and support services.
