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Barkley Adds Third Flight to Chicago

Barkley Adds Third Flight to Chicago
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Jan. 08, 2019 | PADUCAH
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 08, 2019 | 04:16 AM | PADUCAH
Officials from Barkley Regional Airport, along with governmental and community leaders cut the ribbon marking the start of three daily weekday round trip flights between Paducah and Chicago, in a ceremony Monday morning at the airport.

“This is an exciting day for the airport, the community, and the region,” said Barkley Airport Authority Board Chairman George Bray. “This new schedule will make getting anywhere from Paducah and back home. whether to Chicago and beyond, faster and easier than ever before.”

Of the three weekday flights, only one per day will route through Cape Girardeau, for what will be a brief 20-minute stop to allow passengers there to board or de-plane. While in Cape, passengers going on to Chicago/or Paducah won’t even have to get off the aircraft. On the weekends one of the two daily flights will pass through Cape Girardeau, between Paducah and Chicago.

On his first official day in office, McCracken County Judge Executive Craig Clymer, said the airport is a community asset that should be utilized more for the level of service and convenience it provides. “This airport is a major economic development engine,” Clymer said” With its ability to get practically anywhere in one stop from Paducah has the potential to help the entire region to attract business and grow.  The more the people in our area that use the airport and support their local economy,  those dollars get turned around in our community and our community and the airport grow and get stronger.”

Officials from Cape Girardeau Airport made the trip to Paducah to be a part of the ribbon cutting, which was at 10 am.  And following the ceremony several members of the Barkley Airport Board, along with Airport Manager Richard Roof, boarded the 10:55 departure for what was the 14-minute flight to Cape to be there for the ribbon cutting which was held at 3:30, before returning to Paducah on the 4:06 departure.

Daniel Belmont, Route Analysis and Market Development Manger with SkyWest, pointed out to those in attendance that this new schedule sets Paducah and Cape Girardeau apart from all other Essential Sir Service (EAS) subsidized communities that SkyWest serves.

“Of the 40+ EAS cities that SkyWest serves nationwide, Paducah and Cape have the highest level of service of all of them with this new schedule,” Belmont said. “Paducah is one of the strongest communities that we serve. And as we approach 10 years of serving Paducah, we have carried 350,000 passengers on just over 12,000 flights.   This community has a strong market and continues to grow and we expect with 3 daily roundtrip flights that this growth should continue.”

The new schedule marks the first time in over 10 years that Barkley has had 3 flights out of Paducah, and the first time since 2006 that the airport has had 150 seats available per day. While Paducah will see 3 daily flights on weekdays, it will maintain two round trip flights on the weekends. 

With the new schedule and Partnership with Cape Girardeau, they will see an increase from 2 to 3 daily weekday flights, during the week and see an increase from one daily flight on weekends with two flights per day on Saturday and Sunday.
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