MARTINSBURG — Although many Altoona-Blair County Airport Authority board members expressed concerns in April about this month’s REAL ID enforcement deadline, no passengers have been turned away by TSA agents at the airport so far, manager Tracy Plessinger said.

According to Plessinger, TSA is giving passengers a grace period and allowing people without a REAL ID license, a United States passport, a passport card or a military ID to board the airport’s 30-passenger jet after completing extra security checks and screenings.

“It actually went more smoothly than we expected,” Plessinger said of the May 7 enforcement deadline. “They are allowing people to board that don’t have the REAL ID.”

Interestingly enough, Plessinger said he thought senior citizens who don’t fly often would be the demographic without a REAL ID, but many of the passengers facing extra screenings are 40-year-old businessmen who fly out of the airport twice a week, he said.

“That’s who they’re (TSA) having trouble with,” Plessinger said. “It’s going all right. It was just a total reverse of what I thought was going to be the case.”

Plessinger said he also hasn’t heard of any issues with the REAL ID enforcement at surrounding airports.

Plessinger said a Penn State student from Minnesota, who flew to the airport for college prior to the REAL ID deadline, called the airport concerned about how she could get a REAL ID to return home.

“If you were from Pennsylvania, I’d tell you to go down to Altoona and get one, but I have no idea how to get one from Minnesota,” Plessinger said of his conversation with the student. “But as it turns out, she would be able to go anyhow.”

During the airport authority board’s meeting Wednesday, Plessinger said Contour Airlines had a 100% completion rate in April and carried 1,834 passengers to and from the Altoona-Blair County Airport.

Passenger numbers for April were up 4% from March and up 221% from April 2024, Plessinger said, adding Coffee Coop’s sales were up $100 from March.

La Fiesta’s sales for April were down 16% from March but up 17% year over year. Plessinger said he expects the restaurant’s sales for May will be up because the business was busy for Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day.

Avis/Budget sales were also down 10% from March but up 17% from April 2024, Plessinger said.

Avis/Budget manager Nick Bechtel said the airport supplied 178 customers with rental vehicles last month, which was “a good month” for business, he said, adding one-way rentals stabilized in April and no vehicles were dropped off at other locations without authorization.

April was a “transition month” because the airport brought on a new employee, Apryl Cherry, who has been “very reliable and is doing well with our customers,” Bechtel said.

Bechtel said Aero has been updating the airport’s fleet for summer, including a few noteworthy and highly optioned vehicles: a Ford Bronco, a Volkswagen Atlas and a Ram 1500 Limited.

May has started off strong for the airport’s rental vehicle operations, Bechtel told board members, noting Avis/Budget had a 99% utilization rate last weekend.

“Overall it’s just a pretty good month and we’re looking forward to this month,” Bechtel said.

“As always, good job,” board Vice Chairman Drew Swope told Bechtel.

In other business, the airport authority voted unanimously to accept the 2024 audit, which was prepared and presented by Young, Oakes, Brown and Co. partner Dave Scott, who said there weren’t any findings in the audit.

The board also approved motions to hire Cherry as a full-time employee for the Avis/Budget operation and Timothy Karns as a full-time maintenance employee.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.