Paulding County, northwest of Atlanta, and a New York City venture capital firm say they are on the verge of cracking a monopoly in metro Atlanta by establishing rival airline service outside Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Propeller Investments, whose bid to bring airline flights to Gwinnett County failed last year, says it is now in partnership with the Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport to do the same there, as well as to create a cluster of aviation-related businesses in the area.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Propeller chief executive Brett Smith said he hopes to announce airline service to Paulding by year’s end after the airport receives necessary federal approvals. He said his firm is talking with carriers with jets in the size range of the Boeing 737. He declined to name the carriers.
“It’s going to be limited to start,” Smith said.
The operation he envisions — one airline with a few flights a week, at least initially — wouldn’t constitute a true alternative to Hartsfield-Jackson, which has more than 1,000 takeoffs every day. Paulding’s airport, west of the county seat of Dallas and 38 miles from downtown Atlanta, is tiny and remote, with no control tower.
Still, it is the latest attempt to offer alternative airline service in the Atlanta region, one of the few in the nation with only one commercial airport.
Public opposition to big jets sank Propeller’s bid to run Gwinnett’s Briscoe Field last year, and the same concern has shot down other “second airport” initiatives.
In contrast to the Gwinnett effort, which required a key vote from the county commission, Smith said his company already has signed contracts with the Paulding airport’s governing authority.
Blake Swafford, director of the Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport, said the airport has also already submitted applications to the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration seeking approvals to allow commercial airline service.
via Paulding airport plan includes airline flights | www.myajc.com.
Comments ( 0 )