New Study Says CHO Could Lose Airline Service

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Updated: 8:02 PM Jun 25, 2008 New Study Says CHO Could Lose Airline Service The Charlottesville Albemarle Airport could lose some or all of its airline services according to a new study. Posted: 6:41 PM Jun 25, 2008 Reporter: Mark Tenia Email Address: mark.tenia@wcav.tv

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June 25, 2008

"It's a really interesting, confusing, confounding thing that's going on right now and there's not, there's no pattern or there's nothing in place to figure out why it's happening," said Rochelle DeBaun, manager of Peace Frogs Travel Agency.

Is the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport expanding or are services going to be cut? Last month we reported CHO was trying to expand. Today a study conducted for the Business Travel Coalition says more than likely the airport will lose some if not all airline service because of high gas prices.

"We haven't seen any great increase in the number of flights that have been canceled but it's unfortunately been kind of a slow continuing to cancel flights," said DeBaun.

DeBaun says information about airlines changes everyday and it's hard to know what may happen in the future, but the Business Travel Coalition says their new study identified Charlottesville as one of a hundred regional markets that will most likely lose airline service.

Saying multiple airlines are likely to default and fail in the coming months. A fact that could have a major impact on the community.

"I think it will greatly affect the community if the airlines do cancel a lot of flights out here especially business travelers," said DeBaun.

And because of the size of CHO, even a few cutbacks will be felt by local travelers.

"We just don't have a lot of backups. Where if you're flying from a big international airport you've got lots and lots of options so if one or two flights are cut then its not as much of an impact," said DeBaun.

We did try to contact CHO to get their reaction. They declined to comment but did say they would respond in a release on Friday.

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