You can't get there from here - first Allegiant flight out of Owensboro canceled

Ah. . .you just can't make this stuff up.

First let me give a little backstory:

The Owensboro airport is guaranteed commercial air service thanks to the Essential Air Services act.
In November of 2007, thanks to some extra cheese from our U.S. government, Fly- By-Night-Airlines I mean Big Lie Big Sky airlines re-initiated flights out of the Owensboro Airport after about a year of no service. A mere two months later and Big Sky was pulling out. Thankfully, our government expedited the search for another carrier and extended a contract to Fly-By-Night Airlines 2 Great Lakes Aviation. Great! Service is slated to start in June July August September October November December Febtober 3 March 2009!!!! Meanwhile, the x-ray machines and baggage carousels gathered dust.


Image credit: Dennis Sylvester Hurd
Obviously, these are not the first passengers of Allegiant Airlines from Owensboro

Enter Allegiant. While this service was not part of the government EAS contract, Allegiant decided to offer two JET flights a week out of OWB (take note, this was announced in November - four months ago). Heck, this is great news, Owensboro has never really had any REAL jet service, all those EAS flights used those 1930's era turbo-props - you know - the planes that even an Armenian airline would consider not fit for service. And the airport fit Allegiant's plan, flying into smaller airports willing to let them come in for next to nothing in service fees.

The fanfare on the local TV news was whipped to a frenzied pace. Why they even had to reorganize the inside of the terminal to fit all the people that were going to use the service.

Fast-forward (or just stay put) to today, February 18, the day that would rejuvenate air service to Owensboro: The flight was canceled at 2:30a.m. by the TSA. Yep, after four months of preparation, it seems the airport board and the TSA couldn't muster a team to knock the dust off those x-ray machines. Details are sketchy but it appears the TSA is pulling a fast one for additional money. Wait. . .we've had four months to iron this out! I'm really at a loss of words for this one. How. . .why. . .WTF. . .really. . .

Which brings up the point, when you are flying out of an airport with only two flights a week, your travel plans can really get screwed. Passengers today either had to re-book through Evansville, drive to Lexington for another Allegiant flight, or try to book a last minute seat on the Owensboro-Orlando stagecoach route from what I understand. I think alot of those people lining up for flights are going to have a reality check when they realize that an overzealous bureaucrat or a haywire warning light on a single plane can ruin their vacation. After this, I sure as heck ain't going to go near the OWB airport.

Yep, February 18 will be an historic day for our little airport - the day that commercial service officially ended. Yeah, the TSA may get things straightened out for Saturday's flight and we may have a few months of service, but the damage is done. The airport power's-that-be may as well start working on their next marketing strategy - targeting training flights from Fort Cambell for Moonlight Bar-B-Que take-out. Actually a few of them may need to brush up on the phrase "You want fries with that?"

Of course, this brings up a great new slogan/marketing strategy for Owensboro: Owensboro! You Can't Get Here From There

By the way, I hope you'll note that most of the story links for this post was from wfie.com, the local NBC TV Station. In my opinion, they've got the best accessible reporting for Owensboro, but more on that later. . .


UPDATE 2/20/09-Allegiant's first flight out of Owensboro was rescheduled for Thursday morning and went off without a hitch. The curmudgeon still stands by its opinion that this screw-up still cost the airport a large amount of its what little reputation it had.

UPDATE 2 -2/20/09 - Seems like the airport's manager is no longer employed. I also heard that the airport is now charging $5 a day for parking (it used to be free). Any confirmation? If so, I would chalk that up under major blunder also.