There is a little more room for planes to land at one airport in central Pennsylvania.
The main runway near Williamsport has been extended just enough to improve safety and hopefully draw more flights to the regional airport.
The runway expansion at in Montoursville has been in the works for more than a decade. The extra space should improve the way people fly in and out of the airport, said officials.
The main runway now stretches a full 6,824 feet. That is more than 300 feet longer than it used to be. The extra distance is meant to make landings at the airstrip a whole lot safer.
"It will allow aircraft to land at this airport during more adverse weather conditions," said Tom Hart, the airport's executive director.
There were times when flights had to be turned away due to bad weather, according to airport officials.
"The way we're situated with the river and the creek, we get a lot of fog situations here. With the new runway extension here we'll eliminate a lot of that," added Hart.
"They wont have the hiccups every so often when there's bad weather they're going to be able to land a lot more frequently," added Jason Fink with the Lycoming County Visitors Bureau.
Because there are so many flights carrying representatives of gas drilling companies to central Pennsylvania, the extra runway space will ensure those customers keep coming back said airport officials.
From a tourism standpoint, local leaders are thrilled with the longer runway in hopes that it could someday draw bigger flights here.
"The extension was not that big but it was big enough to get the distance they needed to get bigger flights in here," said Fink.
Another improvement is the extension of the taxiway. The longer road means a shorter trip for planes to get to the terminal after landing, a move that will save airlines thousands of dollars in fuel costs.
"We had to go over a lot of hurdles, through a lot of hoops, and here we are," said Hart.
The price tag on the entire project at the Williamsport Regional Airport was around $7.4 million.
Most of the funding comes from federal money and a small percentage from state and local funding.
The main runway near Williamsport has been extended just enough to improve safety and hopefully draw more flights to the regional airport.
The runway expansion at in Montoursville has been in the works for more than a decade. The extra space should improve the way people fly in and out of the airport, said officials.
The main runway now stretches a full 6,824 feet. That is more than 300 feet longer than it used to be. The extra distance is meant to make landings at the airstrip a whole lot safer.
"It will allow aircraft to land at this airport during more adverse weather conditions," said Tom Hart, the airport's executive director.
There were times when flights had to be turned away due to bad weather, according to airport officials.
"The way we're situated with the river and the creek, we get a lot of fog situations here. With the new runway extension here we'll eliminate a lot of that," added Hart.
"They wont have the hiccups every so often when there's bad weather they're going to be able to land a lot more frequently," added Jason Fink with the Lycoming County Visitors Bureau.
Because there are so many flights carrying representatives of gas drilling companies to central Pennsylvania, the extra runway space will ensure those customers keep coming back said airport officials.
From a tourism standpoint, local leaders are thrilled with the longer runway in hopes that it could someday draw bigger flights here.
"The extension was not that big but it was big enough to get the distance they needed to get bigger flights in here," said Fink.
Another improvement is the extension of the taxiway. The longer road means a shorter trip for planes to get to the terminal after landing, a move that will save airlines thousands of dollars in fuel costs.
"We had to go over a lot of hurdles, through a lot of hoops, and here we are," said Hart.
The price tag on the entire project at the Williamsport Regional Airport was around $7.4 million.
Most of the funding comes from federal money and a small percentage from state and local funding.
