CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The first Dallas-to-Charleston direct flight on American Airlines is scheduled to touch down Wednesday evening at Yeager Airport.
Yeager Manager Rick Atkinson plans to be on the 4:30 p.m. flight from Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW) Airport. The daily return flights will leave Yeager at just after 5 p.m.
Atkinson said flying direct to Dallas would open a lot of new opportunities for Yeager passengers including connecting flights to the West Coast and international flights.
Atkinson also predicted the flight would be a natural connection for those in the natural gas industry who do business between West Virginia and Texas. There’s also the connection between the Mountain State and Big 12 Conference destinations.
“All of the Big 12 cities are serviced by American,” Atkinson noted. “So you go into DFW and then you get a short connection into one of the cities of the Big 12.”
Pre-sales for the flights have been encouraging according to Atkinson. He said airlines don’t like to operate routes at a loss so there will be some pressure to perform out of Yeager and its passengers. He called himself optimistic because of the pending merger between US Air and American. He says US Air has a lot of loyal customers in the Charleston region.
“You combine that with what American has to offer and I think it will make both operations even stronger,” Atkinson said.