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Ogdensburg prepares for celebration of Allegiant Air’s first flight, on a 177-passenger plane, into expanded airport Oct. 5

Posted 9/27/16

Updated at 9:48 p.m. to clarify OBPA contributed $170,000, not $1.7 million. NorthCountryNow.com regrets the error. OGDENSBURG -- Allegiant Air’s first in-bound flight to Ogdensburg International …

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Ogdensburg prepares for celebration of Allegiant Air’s first flight, on a 177-passenger plane, into expanded airport Oct. 5

Posted

Updated at 9:48 p.m. to clarify OBPA contributed $170,000, not $1.7 million. NorthCountryNow.com regrets the error.

OGDENSBURG -- Allegiant Air’s first in-bound flight to Ogdensburg International Airport – expected to be a 177-passenger Airbus A320 -- will arrive on Oct. 5.

With that, the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority will celebrate the completion of the $26 million airport expansion project that succeeded in attracting an airline with full-sized airliners.

The plane is due to land at the airport at 11:50 a.m. A formal program and press conference will start at noon.

Local, regional, and state elected officials, project contractors, and community citizens instrumental in the expansion project will be in attendance.

The celebration is open to the public, not by invitation as originally reported.

The airline’s non-stop flights from Ogdensburg to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida twice a week were officially announced in June.

The new flights are to be year-round on Wednesdays and Saturdays to Sanford, Fla., about 27 miles from Orlando and 38 miles from Daytona. Trips to Ft. Lauderdale will take place Sundays and Thursdays.

Flight days, times and the lowest fares can be found at Allegiant.com. Fares to Orlando on Oct. 5 started at $111.50 and only about were sold, according to the airline’s website on Monday.

The airport expansion broke ground in October 2015. The original schedule had Allegiant flights starting this November.

The ambitious airport expansion plan included a 1,200-foot extension of the airport’s runway, which required moving a portion of State Route 68.

In addition the taxiway was widened and extended, there were runway approach lighting improvements, and obstruction removal. Additional improvements include a 4,000 square foot terminal extension and the addition of a 423-space parking area.

In 2014, the OBPA reached agreement with Allegiant Air, a Low Cost Carrier (LCC), to provide LCC services at OGS commencing November 2016, contingent upon the OGS airport expansion.

Allegiant agreed to contribute up to $1 million for terminal expansion, and the OBPA contributed nearly $170,000 to accelerate the airport expansion process to meet Allegiant’s schedule.