MACON, Ga. — If you need to catch a flight, you have at least another four years to fly from Macon!
Macon-Bibb County this month started a new federal contract providing subsidized flights to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Every few years, the U.S. Department of Transportation gives money to the county, and they use the money to contract with their preferred airline.
"What Contour allowed us to do was provide nonstop service to a destination," Aviation Director Doug Faour said.
That destination is Washington, DC, where Maconites voted to go in 2016. Since then, the planes have filled up.
"Pre-COVID, we had about 30,000, nearly 30,000 passenger enplanements, which was pretty close to the numbers that Delta was doing, or ASA was doing when they were here many years ago," Faour explained.
He says the federal dollars don't just fuel passenger service. They also help lead to additional federal money that's key to attracting new business as the airport pushes to become a maintenance hub. They want to be a place where airlines to send their planes for repairs or repainting.
"It allowed us to increase the amount of federal funding that we received," Faour said. "Making it a lot easier to upgrade our infrastructure by having a substantial more amount of money in funding."
He says the best thing about the contract is that it gives them options.
"The Alternate Essential Air Service program gives us the flexibility to change destinations around and do things a little bit differently, and that's why we opted to go for it," Faour said.
According to the $20 million grant, the county could choose to change their destination to another city, or add another hub. The grant includes funding for flights to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, but also allows the possibility of adding service to Charlotte, or another mid-size or major hub airport.
Faour wouldn't confirm whether they're in talks with other airports, but he said they're always evaluating what Central Georgia wants from the airport.
The grant approval says an average of 10 people must use the service each day for the program to stay active. Right now, you can catch a flight from Macon through September 2027.