Toledo Express Airport has been awarded $400,000 in grants for air service. The Small Community Air Service Development grant will be used to secure non-stop passenger air service to New York City. The federal monies will be used to offset any loss an airline might incur. Toledo was one of 25 airports to receive a grant.
As reported, according to a 2004 report, Toledoans make about 94,000 air trips per year to New York. Only ten percent or less of those trips are made from Toledo itself, the rest are mostly from Detroit. Air travel at Toledo declined 23.6 percent in 2005.
Meanwhile, as Toledoans try to get service to New York, the Federal Aviation Administration has proposed requiring airlines to fly larger planes into New York’s LaGuardia Airport as reported by Reuters.
The current regulations on flights at LaGuardia expire in January, and the FAA will likely extend that restriction. It hopes to have a permanant plan ready by next summer for phase in by 2010. About half of the flights at LaGuardia are 50-seat regional jets. By requiring airlines to fly larger planes, the FAA can increase passenger capacity without increasing congestion. Exemptions would be allowed to smaller communities whose volume could not support the larger aircraft.