Why a Pennsylvania airport dropped Philly and added Charlotte as a destination

Leaders of a small central Pennsylvania airport are switching to Charlotte for their only nonstop route and ditching the in-state Philadelphia International Airport.

The U.S. Department of Transportation approved the change recently for Altoona-Blair County Airport in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, the airport confirmed. Low-cost carrier Contour Airlines currently provides service to Philadelphia for the airport.

A 30-passenger jet for Contour will make two daily round trips between Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the Altoona airport starting Oct. 1.

A round-trip ticket is around $150, Altoona airport Manager Tracy Plessinger told The Charlotte Observer.

For passengers in the Charlotte region, the new route is another option for trips to Pennsylvania destinations. The airport is about 3 1/2 hours from Philadelphia and two hours from Pittsburgh or Harrisburg.

Altoona is home to Adventureland Theme Park and Adventure Bay Water Park, which has over 100 rides and attractions. The city also has the Horseshoe Curve , a national landmark with a 2,375-foot railroad curve carved into the side of the Allegheny Mountains.

Why CLT over PHL?

Plessinger said the decision to switch to Charlotte’s airport was made to provide more options to residents in central Pennsylvania through American Airlines connections, a Contour partner.

He said American Airlines had 300 daily departures at the Philadelphia airport, while Charlotte had 700.

American Airlines accounts for about 90% of all flights Charlotte Douglas and is the second-largest hub for the Fort Worth-Texas company. CLT is the seventh-busiest airport in the world, according to the Airport Council International’s preliminary rankings for 2022.

Charlotte Douglas had more than 53 million passengers last year. In the last 12 months, Contour has carried 7,500 passengers at the Altoona airport, Plessinger said. He expects that number to increase significantly with the new CLT service.

“There are a lot of local people in our area that have connections to the Carolinas, family that’s moved down there, or business going on in the Carolinas,” Plessinger told The Charlotte Observer.

About 70% of the passengers using the airport are headed south, he said.

Another goal for the Altoona-Blair County Airport is to connect people in the rural area to an airport with flights anywhere in the country. Plessinger said the Charlotte airport is also easier for passengers to navigate than Philadelphia’s and has better air traffic than Northeast locations such New York or Washington D.C.

Charlotte Douglas officials referred comments to Contour Airlines. The company did not respond to request for comment from the Observer.

Tennessee-based Contour first start flying out of Charlotte Douglas in 2018.