Optimism already is paying off for the Altoona-Blair County Airport. It is important that there be no interruption in it, going forward.

Last July, officials in charge of the local air facility — specifically, the Altoona-Blair County Airport Authority — were knee-deep in planning for redirecting the airport’s 30-passenger jet service away from Philadelphia International Airport, which increasingly had been judged an inconvenience to most Blair-based air travelers, from a directional standpoint.

Now, the optimism that was the foundation for that successful move, effective last Oct. 1, has been applied to obtaining a big sum of federal money that could be a godsend from the standpoint of making certain improvements to the Blair facility feasible in a shorter time frame than otherwise would be possible.

Based on passenger data discussed at an authority meeting on June 11, the passengers total necessary for eligibility for $1.3 million in “Washington money” being sought is within reach if enplanements remain consistent with current numbers during the half-year ahead.

Since there is no change in the reality that most of the passengers departing from the Martinsburg area facility prefer flights headed south, in part because of the many more connection alternatives available at North Carolina’s Charlotte-Douglas International Airport than what exist at Philadelphia, the local airport has cause for being upbeat about passenger volume remaining consistent or growing.

According to the authority, enplaning 10,000 passengers by year’s end would guarantee allocation of the money here through the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport improvement program.

Currently, the local airport is eligible for $150,000 under the program; enplaning 10,000 would enable the authority to do much more.

“I think we’ll hit 10,000 (enplanements) without much trouble,” reported airport manager Tracy Plessinger at the June 11 authority meeting. “We’re definitely on track.”

The authority cannot spread the word often enough about what Contour Airlines’ service here offers for the flying public.

Plessinger explained that funding from the airport improvement program can be used for any project to improve safety on — or the general function of — an airport.

The manager continued that, if everything on an airport is “good and up to complete FAA standards,” the money can be used for other things, such as hangars, terminals or parking lots.

Plessinger noted that every airport receives an allocation from the federal program each year, but if Altoona-Blair County enplanes 10,000 passengers, the authority could theoretically launch a $1.3 million project without having to compete against other airports for the money.

As explained in a June 13 Mirror article, the money is a 90% grant, meaning that for every $1 million spent on a project, the FAA will fund $900,000.

Meanwhile, under that $1 million scenario, the authority also would be eligible for $50,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

The remaining $50,000 would be a local share for which the authority would be responsible.

In all, the situation being pursued “spells out” to be quite a bargain, and optimism should remain at the center of it all.

In an editorial last July, the Mirror said “seldom is there a change that is in everyone’s best interests, but the newly announced change (to Charlotte-Douglas) … seems like it will better serve most of the people who fly out of and into the Martinsburg facility.”

That is proving itself every day, and many more people should join those who already enjoy the advantages of the service.

— Altoona Mirror