Airline wins grant for 'river run'

An airline trying to get off the ground in Nebraska is getting $950,000 in federal grants.

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the money to Scottsbluff's Western Nebraska Regional Airport to help fund Westward Airways, which hopes to establish two round-trip flights a day from Scottsbluff to Omaha, with stops in North Platte and Lincoln.

Officials in the Scottsbluff area will provide $750,000 in local funds in addition to the federal funding, Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., said in announcing the grant Wednesday.

"Airline service connecting western and eastern Nebraska is critical," Osborne said. "I am pleased that this grant will allow Scottsbluff to enhance its air service both across the state and nationally."

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Gov. Mike Johanns said the funding is important to Nebraska.

"Transportation is as important as education and health care, for example, when a business considers expansion, relocation, and even maintenance of current operations," Johanns said.

Scottsbluff Regional Airport manager Rick Meter said having daily flights to Lincoln will have a positive impact on most of western Nebraska.

"I believe the chamber of commerce's latest figures say our marketing area is about 120,000 people," Meter said. "So if you take even a small percentage of that, it should really increase our boardings."

The Transportation Department is providing $20 million in grants to 40 communities across the country to address local air service deficiencies.

An effort in central Nebraska failed to win $1 million from the same program, said Kelly Sokol, Osborne's press secretary.

"We do wish some of our other airports in the 3rd District could have received funding as well," Sokol said.

The executive director of the Grand Island airport, Bill Stovall, had spearheaded efforts to win a grant in hopes of expanding air service out of that airport.

Stovall said failure to win the $1 million grant will not end efforts to provide service to Kansas City, as well as expand current service to Denver and include airline routes to Minneapolis.

"That will not deter," Stovall said of losing the grant. "It was only added value."