Delta affiliate begins jet service in State College this summer STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Delta's regional carrier Comair is coming to State College, and it's bringing the area's first regularly scheduled jet service. Officials from Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, announced Thursday that they would operate three daily round-trip flights between the University Park Airport and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky., beginning July 22. "This is a very vibrant community with the economic engine of Penn State University. It brings a lot of travelers, both inbound and outbound, for this community," said Joe Kauffmann, spokesman for Delta Connection-Comair. Each flight will be a regional jet ? the first regular jet service into State College ? capable of carrying up to 40 passengers. "Faster is better, and getting to a hub a little quicker than we used to be able to is going to be huge for us," said John Coleman, president of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County. "And we believe this is going to be just the beginning. I think there are some other carriers that are assessing what jet service will mean and what they may do to respond to that." Comair becomes the fourth airline serving State College, joining the regional carriers for Northwest, United and US Airways. Those airlines have occasionally offered jet service, but use turbo props for their regular service. William A. Ward, professor of business at Susquehanna University, agreed that Comair's presence might force the existing carriers to upgrade their service. "Comair is saying, 'We're going to be faster and better,' and that moves the market up a notch," Ward said. "The others are going to have to ... come up to speed with a better-quality aircraft, better timeliness and service. It definitely puts pressure on the other carriers." Comair is part of the Delta Connections regional network. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is Delta's second-largest hub, with more than 540 flights daily to some 120 destinations. "From the business community standpoint, having a fourth carrier in this airport brings a variety of new destinations. That's a tremendous resource for this community," Coleman said. And the State College area is a valuable resource for Comair, which already serves several Pennsylvania airports, including Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Erie, but does not have service in north-central Pennsylvania. "I do think that, given the overall market over there, particularly the university market and the developing light-manufacturing and white collar market over there, it's probably going to be very profitable for them," Ward said. "I think they'll be able to attract a lot of college students, who wouldn't go all the way to Harrisburg to get into the Delta feeder system." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.pscutt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************