The North Central West Virginia Airport is seeking to break the 10,000-passenger total by the end of the year.
Now where have we heard that statement before?
You’re right. Last year the Benedum Airport Authority was seeking the same thing. And for good reason. If the goal is achieved, the Federal Aviation Administration will grant the airport $1 million in federal development funds. When Benedum received that money last year, it marked the first time in several years that goal had been reached.
And the surprising thing is that, even though the airport needs to have 1,200 passengers this month and that same total next month to reach that total, interim airport director Rick Rock appears optimistic that the goal will be reached.
The airport, if our figures are correct, needs to average 833 passengers a month throughout the year to make 10,000 goal. That total has not been maintained this year, and that’s why it must seek some additional passengers for the final two months just as it did last year.
The airport authority is planning a charter flight to New York City — for a shopping trip and/or the West Virginia University-Rutgers football game on the first weekend in December. The success of the WVU football team in the two games leading up to Rutgers could affect that flight considerably. Officials believe at least 150 passengers will make the trip.
The airport authority is also considering taking two planeloads of student passengers to the National Aeronautics and Space Museum in Washington as it did last year. Both of these planes were sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex (MAAC), and the trips were free for the students from Marion and Harrison counties.
The projected cost of these flights would be around $90,000, something the airport authority is seeking help with from outside agencies, which include the Marion County Board of Education as well as the school board in Harrison County, although it may get stuck paying a portion of this bill. Even if the authority did pay a portion or all of this bill, it would still come out ahead if the enplanement goal is reached.
It’s unfortunate that the Benedum Airport Authority is apparently running into this problem each year even though the $1 million prize is certainly worth going for. The passengers who fly in November and December are “worth just as much” as those who fly in the spring and the summer in the overall total.
The Benedum Airport Authority needs to market its flights so that the million-dollar prize doesn’t come down to being a buzzer-beater each year.
