Airport Director Hopes To Lure A Commercial Airline To Operate At The Central Florida Field

A commercial airline would offer three or four regularly-scheduled flight at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (KLAL) in Central Florida under a plan being pursued by Airport Director Gene Conrad.

The Ledger newspaper reports that Conrad has statistics that show that Lakeland is the 82nd largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. That's bigger than Syracuse, NY, Winston-Salem, NC and Madison WI. All of those cities have commercial airline service at their airports. He said about $4,000 people from the region use a commercial airport each day, Generating more than $520 million in revenue every year.

The two closest commercial airports to Lakeland are Tampa and Orlando International Airports. Conrad said that getting scheduled service will take a coordinated effort between the city, elected officials and the corporate community, such as Publix Supermarkets, which is based in Lakeland.

The last commercial airline to operate out of KLAL was Direct Air. They operated three to four flights per week from the airport, and only between 2011 and 2021. The airline eventually went bankrupt.

Conrad said he is talking with Delta, American Airlines and jetBlue. He said he would be willing to offer revenue guarantees to a carrier in order to secure the business.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report