MARTINSBURG — Contour Airlines’ overall completion rate for February at the Altoona-Blair County Airport was 96%, which was great for the airport because the area had some nasty weather last month, airport manager Tracy Plessinger said.

During Wednesday’s airport authority meeting, Plessinger said passenger numbers for February were up 4% from January and up 8% from February 2025. Contour carried 1,351 inbound and outbound passengers at the airport last month, he said.

“Everything seems to be going good. I’m hearing good reports from the community about really liking this

(service to Charlotte),” Plessinger said.

Plessinger said he gets two or three calls per day from people who’ve never flown out of the airport before, and they always start with the same question: “I’ve never flown out of Altoona before, how far away is your free parking?”

“Well, if you can’t make it from there, you’ve got a problem,” Plessinger said, noting free parking lots at other airports are often far away and not across the street from the entrance, like it is at the Altoona-Blair County Airport.

La Fiesta sales for February were up 1% from January and up 2% year over year, Plessinger said.

Coffee Coop’s sales were down 2% from January, he said, noting the business was affected by the weather.

“She (Coffee Coop owner Betsy Francke) loves when there’s a flight delay in the morning because that’s when she makes a lot of her business,” Plessinger said to the airport authority board.

Avis/Budget sales figures for February were up 21% from January and up 7% from last year, Plessinger said.

In his report, Avis/Budget manager Nick Bechtel said February was a good month for the airport, providing a 20% rental increase year-over-year. The largest contributor to the increase was the extra availability of one-way rentals, he said.

The airport accommodated multiple customers who traveled west of the Mississippi River and into Canada in February, Bechtel said, adding, previously, the airport was unable to accommodate customers who were traveling great distances.

However, Avis/Budget Group is continuing to install new operating systems to align the airport with its other locations, Bechtel said.

Bechtel said he was able to spend some time at the Avis/Budget location in State College. The manager there had “a wealth of knowledge” about Avis/Budget’s new operating system.

So far, the transition from AERO to Avis/Budget Group vehicles has been good for State College, which is a great sign for the Altoona airport as it prepares to enter the transition, Bechtel said, noting airport officials are still working through an agreement with Avis/Budget.

Plessinger said Avis/Budget sent the airport a proposed agreement Tuesday. But the details in the agreement were not reflective of what airport officials had previously discussed with Avis/Budget, he said.

“They’re trying to squeeze the numbers down,” Plessinger said, adding the airport “doesn’t have much leverage” over Avis/Budget.

“It’s limited on how much we can push back on them,” he said.

While giving his engineer’s report, Nick Barber of McFarland Johnson said bids for the airport’s terminal project are expected back by the end of May.

The project involves remodeling the airport’s first-floor restroom, enabling access from the Transportation Security Administration secure area, Plessinger said in February.

The only new business the airport authority voted on during Wednesday’s meeting was approving the airport’s operations payments in the amount of $45,963. The payment will be made from the airport’s general fund account, according to the meeting’s agenda.

Plessinger said he expects business at the airport will pick up over the summer months.

“I’m anxious to see once the weather breaks and things start to improve how we do in the summer here. But so far, it’s looking good,” Plessinger said.

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