CHARLOTTE—North Carolina transportation officials are facing the question of whether the proverbial cup is half-empty or half-full after receiving only a portion of the funds requested to help start air service between six cities in the state and Raleigh.

Earlier this year, Fayetteville, New Bern, Kinston, Wilmington, Moore County (Southern Pines and Pinehurst), and Hickory formed a consortium and applied for a $3.6 million grant from the federal Small Community Air Service Development Pilot Program. The N.C. Department of Transportation filed the grant request on the consortium’s behalf. Under the proposal, each airport would have received $600,000 in funds to help support new air service to Raleigh. The communities pledged a combined $1.8 million in additional local support. The amount committed varies widely by community, from less than $100,000 for Fayetteville, New Bern, and Wilmington to just under $1 million for Moore County.

Corporate Airlines indicated that it was willing to fly at least three times a day between the six cities and Raleigh if the grant were approved in full. Corporate, which is based in Tennessee, does most of its flying in support of American Airlines’ hub in St. Louis. It operates 19-seat Jetstream turboprop aircraft.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, however, earlier in September awarded the N.C. consortium only $1.2 million. It is unclear whether that level of funding is adequate to get Corporate to begin flights and, if so, how it will be divided up between the six communities.

“The $3.6 million… That’s what we figured would happen,” Don Howard, director of airport operations in Kinston, said to The Free Press of Kinston. “We didn’t inflate our request. We asked for what we actually needed.”

Whether it was reasonable to expect the full amount from the highly competitive SCASDPP is questionable. The program has only $20 million to award to up to 40 communities each year. The amount the N.C. consortium requested was equal to one-sixth of the total funds available.

In 2002, federal officials awarded $19,985,056 through SCASDPP to 40 communities in 37 states. Five awards were for amounts smaller than the communities had requested. The largest award was for $1,557,500 to Bismarck, N.D. Only one other grant exceeded $1 million.

Total applications in 2002 came to $142.5 million from179 communities in 47 states.

The U.S. DOT awarded 35 grants totaling $19,849,807 this year. The $1.2 million that went to the N.C. consortium was the third-largest grant. Consortiums to bring air service to communities in Arizona and New Mexico were awarded $1.5 million and $1.4 million, respectively.

Corporate was involved in several other proposals funded under the SCASDPP. Tupelo, Miss. received a $475,000 grant to help Corporate start flights to Atlanta. Owensboro, Ky. was awarded $500,000 to help secure additional frequencies to St. Louis by Corporate Airlines and improve marketing of the route.

The department received 170 proposals in 2003 from cities in 46 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, seeking a total of $104.4 million.

Lowrey is a Charlotte-based associate editor at Carolina Journal.