New Flight to Charlotte from PIA 7a

Ahead.

<<clay gordon>>but new this morning...a new flight is getting ready for takeoff at peoria international airport.

You can now catch a flight to charlotte from p-i-a.

That's where we find our alyssa paldo who's been following this story for us...hey alyssa, how did this come about?

<<alyssa paldo>>hey guys good morning.

Director of airports gene olsen tells me this has been a long time coming...the airport wanted to add charlotte ...a fast growing hub...but the process of adding a new destination can take a few years.

This flight to charlotte is operated by american airlines.

It runs daily...and will run twice a day...with departures in the morning and afternoon.

Now in this case...p-i-a says it took building a relationship with the route planners at the airline and proving to them that this is a flight that would be profitable here.

<<( gene olson/director of airports "what happened to 3 really make this possible is we already had american airlines here and then american merged with us air and so that made you know charlotte was a us air hub that brought it into the american network and then kind of made it fit with our traffic patterns.")>><<alyssa paldo>>the first flight to charlotte is set for takeoff at 12:47 today...after a launch event.

Now coming up ahead all new in our next half hour...<<alyssa paldo>>we'll talk about why the airport chose charlotte and about the economic impact this could have on the river city.

Live at peoria international airport alyssa paldo wmbd news.