As Air Service Dwindles in ‘Flyover Country,’ Elites Shrug

This is a story that few in our elite class will care about because they cannot see how it affects them, just as they could not see how a factory closing down so many years ago would affect them. But it did, it does, and it will.

AP/J. Scott Applewhite, file
A JetBlue passenger flight lands at Reagan Washington National Airport, January 19, 2022. AP/J. Scott Applewhite, file

SWANTON, Ohio — Twenty years ago, the Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport here in western Lucas County was abuzz with commuter traffic. The planes flying in and out were bigger, the fares were more competitive, and there was a multitude of options to choose from at this Midwest port city, located on the western tip of Lake Erie in the Buckeye State.

The airport began in 1955 as a civic-corporate effort to address the needs of the area. What was then called the Toledo Municipal Airport (now the Toledo Executive Airport) was perceived as inadequate to serve the booming post-World War II industrial city. 

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