Local Support Sought For E-Town Airline Service

Leaders in Elizabethtown and Hardin County are seeking to establish commercial jet service at the Elizabethtown Regional Airport, and a consultant for the airport board visited Columbia Tuesday to explain the effort and seek local financial support.
Luke Schmidt, president of L.B. Schmidt & Associates, who is a consultant for the Elizabethtown Airport Board, spoke to around a dozen people Tuesday morning at Lindsey Wilson College at a meeting sponsored by the Columbia-Adair County Chamber of Commerce.
Schmidt said they have been working for three years to bring scheduled airline service to E-town. The airline would serve a 24-county region that includes Adair, and would be closer than any of the four surrounding airports (Louisville, Lexington, Nashville, TN and Evansville, IN).
He explained that their goals are to establish a regional carrier jet service with a connection to a major regional hub such as Chicago, Atlanta, etc. that would have air fares competitive with other area airports.
"We have established working relationships with three major airlines, and our goal is to get one of the three to make a minimum of three flights per day," Schmidt explained.
He said that the airport's 6,000-foot runway is one of the longest in the state, capable of handling a 757 jet, and will have full instrument approach capabilities by next year. A passenger terminal will have to be built, but a funding source for this has been identified.
Schmidt said that the current expansion at Ft. Knox, which is the biggest airline user in the state, along with the new battery development and production facilities scheduled to be built in Glendale that will eventually employ 2,000-3,000 people, makes commercial airline service at Elizabethtown feasible. However, he said that the airport board must develop a revenue guarantee to help lure a carrier and offset some of the initial start-up expenses. The goal is to raise $2 million.
To raise this money, Schmidt is seeking industries, businesses and individuals to enter a subscription agreement with the airport.
Subscribers would pledge a minimum of $1,000, which would go into the Central Kentucky Airline Service Bank. The money would be put into escrow until the $2 million is raised, then would be turned over to the airline.
Schmidt said that subscribers would get their money back. If air carrier service is established, the money would be paid back through reimbursement for flights taken out of the airport. If no carrier service is established, the money will be refunded.
He said that getting commercial air service at Elizabethtown will have no effect on smaller, local airports, and it will benefit counties such as Adair in many ways.
"Adair County will only be an hour away from commercial jet service, and this is important when you are trying to recruit businesses and industries," Schmidt explained. "Plus, local people who fly frequently will save both money and time."
Schmidt said that he is just now starting the effort to recruit subscribers. To date, $10,000 has been raised, but he said that the amount should increase significantly in a short period of time.
Anyone interested in obtaining more information can contact Schmidt at 502-292-2898 or by e-mail at lbschmidt@ekxairport.com.