Blair County, PA — Airport manager Tracy Plessinger says the travel experience could soon change at the Altoona/Blair County airport, and that the airport is submitting it's candidacy for funding.
Airlines there include Contour which connects people in central PA to Philadelphia and beyond, with 2 flights per day.
Contour is an operator with American Airlines flights, which Plessinger says means you don't have to recheck your bags, or have 2 tickets.
“So you can fly one stop from Altoona to Philadelphia, and then Philadelphia onto a lot of the capitals in Europe, you can go with one stop in Philadelphia. So, the terminal project would be to enhance the terminal for that kind of travel, for that commercial travel.” says Plessinger.
Plessinger says the passenger terminal might be getting some upgrades, including a reworking of its ‘90’s aesthetic’ to a ‘modernized’ design.
This includes everything from the architecture, to the restrooms, and the air conditioning as well, which is now around 25 years old.
“The terminal money you basically need to go to them with a project ready to construct, which means you need to go through the design process and all of that in advance.” he says.
Plessinger also says the proposed upgrades would start with building another 6 hangars for corporations, bringing the total number of hangars at the airport to roughly 65. He says the funding for these hangar projects comes from PennDOT.
Officials say the money funding the terminal would come from the bipartisan infrastructure agreement signed into action by President Biden.
Plessinger says the money for funding the hangars is more likely to be available, but terminal funding is competitive and administrators are now pushing for that opportunity.
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