Count the Altoona-Blair County Airport as an early holiday gift-giver to this region, as well as to potentially many more places far beyond.

The gift it has provided ­– this month, well before the placing of traditional holiday gifts under Christmas trees — is the great news about increased passenger numbers already recorded plus predictions that those upbeat numbers will be topped in coming months and, hopefully, beyond.

Besides the numbers themselves, though, part of the gift to people who fly into and out of the airport is added confidence that the local air service upon which they rely isn’t likely to become endangered or extinct anytime soon.

The airport truly is on the right “flight path” as the busy holiday travel season approaches.

During the sometimes hectic weeks to come, it is to be hoped that many travelers new to the airport will be boarding to enjoy service well above their most optimistic expectations.

As for the now-ended federal government shutdown that caused so many inconveniences for the airline industry and its passengers nationwide, the shutdown, according to Tracy Plessinger, airport manager, caused only minimal negative impacts for Blair’s air facility.

According to Plessinger, every day, it seems, the decision a year ago by local airport authority members to change Contour Airlines’ jet service to Charlotte, N.C., from Philadelphia is confirmed as having been the right move.

In fact, judging from the successes Plessinger outlined, it probably is safe to conclude that the Charlotte decision probably ranks as one of the top five decisions ever having been made on the Blair airport’s behalf.

The information revealed by Plessinger during an airport authority meeting validates such thinking.

Plessinger reported to the authority that Contour’s overall completion rate for October was 100%. He said passenger numbers for October were up 27% from September and up 68% from October 2024.

October of last year was when the route change to Charlotte was implemented.

“Contour carried 2,125 passengers to and from the airport, providing the highest monthly passenger loads since the route’s change, Plessinger said, adding more people from the Pittsburgh area are traveling to Martinsburg to use Contour’s Charlotte service.”

That quote was from a Nov. 13 Mirror article about the Charlotte-related report to the authority.

Meanwhile, that article also included Plessinger’s report that for the first time the Martinsburg area air facility had passengers waiting on standby for flights.

The Blair airport has experienced its ups and downs over the years, just like most of the other smaller-size airports of Pennsylvania. The local success is rooted in airport officials’ ability to keep ahead of the challenges and react to them carefully, constructively and correctly.

And, all of that success has spilled over to impact positively the other businesses operating at the airport — for example, car rentals.

If it in fact occurred, authority members can be excused for having felt some degree of anxiety last year when they were weighing whether the move regarding Charlotte would be correct. They knew if they were wrong, the troubling consequences could have been many.

But they were right, and now the airport is gearing up for the opportunities to provide great holiday-related services, in much the same way as Santa is preparing for Christmas Eve.

There should be no pessimism regarding the abilities of either.