American, United Increase Daily Flights at State College Regional Airport; Officials Hopeful for Additional Service

American and United airlines are increasing daily flights from State College Regional Airport to Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. this fall.

Airport officials, meanwhile, are hopeful that additional service is in the offing, with potential flights to and from Charlotte, North Carolina and the anticipated return of Delta Airlines, Centre County Airport Authority Director Jim Meyer told the Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

"One thing we can count on is change, and we hope for the change for the positive," Meyer said.

Starting Aug. 6, American added a fourth daily flight between State College and Philadelphia International. That will increase to five in October.

United Airlines added a third daily flight to Washington Dulles International Airport as of Monday, and on Sept. 1 will add a fourth flight to and from Chicago O'Hare.

Around Sept. 21, United also will increase the size of the aircraft used for flights between State College and Chicago from a 50-seat jet to a 76-seater that offers first-class service.

All told, the airport will see 10 or 11 flights per day in September and 11 or 12 in October, Meyer said. In November, when demand starts to slow, that will likely roll back to eight or nine flights a day.

"The airlines look for high load factors and peaks and valleys throughout the year," Jason McMurtrie, airline terminal manager for the airport, said. "Obviously with football season they always see that as a very high yield, high load factor so they always try to accommodate extra flights at that time. Same thing around holidays, they’ll try to put in flights to move people for Thanksgiving holiday out and back."

While the number of daily flights are expected to roll back during the slower winter months, Meyer said changes could still come because the airlines are currently operating on three-month scheduling.

Service to additional destinations could also be coming.

The airport authority is continuing talks with American about the long-desired service between State College and Charlotte. The authority began talks with the airline in 2021a about establishing regular flights to and from Charlotte Douglas International, and local and county government entities put together a $300,000 incentive package, primarily using American Rescue Plan Act funds, to assist with upfront costs.

In 2023, American informed the authority that it was "unable to commit" to the proposed service of two flights per day, six days a week, but talks have continued.

"We have been working with American for awhile trying to get our flight to Charlotte," Meyer said. "We are still working toward that end."

More certain seems to be the return of Delta Airlines, which previously operated twice-daily flights from State College to New York LaGuardia, and before that, flights to Detroit. State College was among a number of regional airports where Delta suspended service in 2023 because of crew shortages.

"They are coming back; we just don’t know exactly when," Meyer said. "We’re hopeful that in 2025 they will be returning to the airport. They did tell us when they left that they were coming back."

Those crew shortages following COVID-19 resulted in diminished flight capacity for the airport, as airlines shifted staffing from regional flights to the major hubs. Pre-COVID, State College Regional had about 240,000 seats available annually and filled 193,000, McMurtrie said. This year, it's a capacity of about 165,000, with 135,000 filled.

As staffing stabilizes, McMurtrie said, "everything will start to come back down to us and we’ll get more capacity."

Still, the days of a major carrier operating flights in markets with lower yields "are kind of gone," McMurtrie said. So State College Regional Airport uses data and relationship building to make its case to airlines for additional service.

"They deal with hundreds of airports, and everyone wants service somewhere, bigger planes," he said. "When you establish a good relationship with them, and you use good data that they know they are going to increase the airport’s capacity for certain events and they’re going to get a return on it, they’re willing to listen to you. But if you mess up once, it’s hard to get that back."

He added that airlines are looking for flights that will command a higher price, and that "unfortunately prices are where they’;re at and they’re not going to go down. The airlines are looking to make money with the resources they have."

The authority is, however, discussing ways the airport can lower costs for airlines to benefit passengers.

"So with that the airlines would have room to lower the price of the tickets some and put us in better line for additional and new service," Meyer said.

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