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WILLIAMSTOWN — As the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport continues to await the appointment of an airline to provide its federally subsidized Essential Air Service, people are wondering when they will be able to book flights out of the local facility for the upcoming summer travel season.

Over the past few months, the airport has seen changes in service with Air Wisconsin initially named last August as the provider, only to have them withdraw in September. Contour Airlines, which has been providing service since 2018, has continued to fly to and from the airport on a contractual basis until a final selection is made.

“We don’t have anything yet,” Airport Manager Ben Auville said.

He has been in contact with the federal U.S. Department of Transportation and officials with Contour Airlines.

“We are still in touch with all of the players and waiting,” Auville said. “It has been frustrating.”

After Air Wisconsin’s withdrawal, the Federal Aviation Administration received three bids, one from current provider Contour to continue to fly to Charlotte, N.C., and two from SkyWest with one for service to Washington, D.C., or Chicago and one for service to Charlotte.

Auville attributes the delay in a decision to a number of factors in the federal government, including last fall’s shutdown.

If Contour is chosen then things can continue as they have with ticket sales being able to be booked more in advance, he said. The airline has been going month to month and is contracted through April.

SkyWest has begun to build a presence in West Virginia at places like Lewisburg and Clarksburg.

If they are chosen, people at these other operations can be moved to help get operations established more quickly at the local airport, but it is uncertain how fast they could get operations up and running.

“Once a decision is made, there are things that need to happen,” Auville said. “I am just waiting like everybody else.

“We are continually asked about it, and once we know something, we will put it out there.”

Right now, the lack of a decision on which airline will be providing service is hurting enplanement numbers as people don’t know if they will be able to book flights to and from the airport in the upcoming summer travel months.

“I know there are some people who are not flying because of the uncertainty in this situation,” Auville said. “Our passenger numbers are significantly down.”

In January, the airport had 234 enplanements. Auville said in a normal January they would have expected three times that amount, with college students heading home after the holidays and a number of snowbirds flying south to Florida for the winter.

Many people are traveling to Charlotte itself for different reasons. The remaining travelers are going elsewhere in the country or on to somewhere internationally.

A lack of numbers could also impact their eligibility for federal funds if this situation continues for long, Auville said.

“I am hoping a decision will alleviate some things and get our service back to where it should be,” he said.

A good month would have around 600 enplanements, which the airport had been able to get in the past.

“You have to have that level of performance to get those federal dollars,” Auville said. “My biggest concern right now is I don’t have that.”

He is afraid people will lose confidence in the airport and will go elsewhere for service, meaning it will take longer to build the local service back up once a carrier is named.

“Getting back to where we were a year ago may take a couple of years,” Auville said. “That is always a challenge and a concern.

“The reliability and availability of the service is a big factor in the terms of someone’s next usage.”

Once a decision is made, the airport can begin the work of getting everything in place to be able to serve customers as well as starting a marketing push to get passengers booked and tickets sold.

“It is the reliability of service,” Auville said. “That is what we are shy on because of the situation we are in.

“I’m not going to blame anything but the situation.”

He said an airline can spend years building up their service, but once it and its reliability are gone, even for a short time, the airport will have to start again from scratch to build that back up again.

People are wanting to begin to make their summer travel plans.

“If they can’t use me, they are going to go somewhere else,” Auville said. “If they haven’t been using us because of all of this stuff, I don’t see anything changing over the next couple of months.

“The sooner this gets resolved, the better.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com