Two Centre County organizations are gauging interest for a new airline at the State College Regional Airport, which would offer flights to Orlando, Florida.
Currently, the airport only has flights to Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington D.C. Allegiant Air canceled its flights to Florida out of State College during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, Breeze Airways is looking to expand and is considering providing flights from State College.
The Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County and the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau are asking people to sign an online pledge of support to show interest in the added flights. The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau is a financial supporter of WPSU.
“We have over a thousand responses to the call for, you know, action to pledge," said Greg Scott, the president and CEO of CBICC. Those responses add up to interest in an estimated 3,000 flights in and out of the airport to Florida each year.
Scott said they’ve gotten comments from people who have a home in Florida and struggle to get to State College, and people who want to travel to watch Penn State football games. Plus, he said Florida is a popular vacation destination for central Pennsylvanians.
Scott said he thinks the pledges will prove a strong community demand to Breeze Airways. He said the airline is considering expansion to about a dozen cities, including at the State College Regional Airport, but will only choose one or two.
“They haven’t told us what the timeline is for that decision," Scott said. "So, we’re thinking a month or two that they would get back and let us know what locations they decided to select.”
Scott said State College is an attractive place for airline expansion because it's home to Penn State and has a central location in Pennsylvania.
