Published: September 03, 2008 11:59 pm         

Greenbrier Valley welcomes Continental

LEWISBURG — Greenbrier Valley Airport ushered in a new era of flight service Wednesday and celebrated the landing of Continental Airlines’ inaugural flight at the facility.

Gov. Joe Manchin personally welcomed Continental Flight 9302 from its Cleveland hub to Greenbrier Valley by walking onto the tarmac and shaking hands with the airplane’s pilots.

“Air service is very important to this area and we welcome you to West Virginia,” Manchin said to a couple of surprised pilots as he looked inside the 19-seat turbo-prop plane.

Manchin spoke with Gulfstream International Airlines President and CEO David Hackett while on the tarmac, adding, “this is exactly what the Greenbrier Valley needed.”

Manchin explained to the several dozen who gathered for the celebration that the Continental flights are part of the Essential Air Service program provided by the federal government to rural areas.

The government subsidizes these flights to areas that carriers would normally consider too cost-prohibitive to serve. Greenbrier Valley lost its EAS carrier when US Airways pulled out in June, leaving the airport with only one daily flight.

Also speaking at the event was Greenbrier County Convention and Visitors Bureau president Mike Kidd, county commission president Lowell Rose and Lewisburg Mayor John Manchester.

“The restoration of flights under the Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service program is welcome news for the Greenbrier Valley Airport and the region,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said.

Later in the day, the CVB officials and select media flew to Cleveland as part of the day’s celebration.

Continental will fly into GVA twice daily from Cleveland, the airline’s hub which has access to 350 connections to most northern, southern and Midwest U.S. cities.

Detracting just a tad from Wednesday’s celebration was the “wheels down” portion of the event scheduled for 10:10 a.m. The plane landed about an hour late, but for good reason.

“We got fogged in at Cleveland,” Hackett said. “No matter how much you want to take off, you can’t.”

Continental stopped providing nonstop service between Charleston’s Yeager Airport and Cleveland, on Tuesday.

The elimination of the Charleston-to-Cleveland service was announced in June as the airline worked to combat rising fuel costs and low ridership.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com