The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport will soon add seasonal direct flights to another destination, building on a string of new services announced in recent months.
Twice-weekly Breeze Airways service to Myrtle Beach, S.C. is scheduled to begin June 20, airport officials said Wednesday. The flights will operate until Oct. 27 this year and resume again next year, company officials said.
Airport Executive Director Carl Beardsley Jr. summed up the draw of the new destination in simple terms.
"People love the beach. They love golfing," Beardsley said.
"The summer months will be great for our area's beachgoers, and both September and October are great months for golfing in Myrtle Beach," Lackawanna County Commissioner Chairman Matt McGloin added.
The Myrtle Beach flights will be offered on Thursdays and Sundays. Introductory one-way fares starting at $49 will be available if booked by April 30.
Beardsley said travelers can begin searching for fares and booking flights at www.flybreeze.com/home.
The flights between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP) and Myrtle Beach (MYR) will operate on Thursdays and Sundays as follows:
- Southbound
Depart AVP 4:55 p.m., arrive MYR 6:40 p.m. - Northbound
Depart MYR 2:30 p.m., arrive AVP 4:20 p.m.
'Quality of life' and business impact
Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce President Bob Durkin suggested that the latest addition to the airport's route offerings does more than give travelers another leisure destination: It will enhance the attractiveness of the region for potential new arrivals.
"Helping the existing businesses and their workforce is really important, and a critical component of that is talent attraction," Durkin said, adding that offering flights to destinations such as Myrtle Beach sends a signal to those eyeing the region "about all the amenities, the quality of life components" available in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
AVP sees expansions, growth
For the airport, those signals have been growing stronger in recent months:
- Breeze, a relatively new carrier, began offering flights from AVP to Orlando, Fla. in January.
- United Airlines added a flight to Chicago in March and American Airlines adds a Chicago flight this month.
- United also plans to start two flights daily to Washington, D.C., on June 27.
- Breeze announced last month that new flights to Fort Myers, Florida, will begin twice weekly on Oct. 3.
As WVIA reported earlier this month, the new Breeze flights to Orlando already are helping fuel an overall increase in passenger volume for the airport. That was a significant development, as AVP had been without direct flights to Florida since Allegiant Air discontinued service in 2018.
Nearly 1,000 passengers flew on the Orlando service in its first month, Beardsley has said, while American Airlines flights saw almost 2,500 more departures in February compared to last February.
That contrasts with the dominant trend in 2023, when the last 10 months of the year saw airport departures dropping compared to the same month the previous year.
"We have seen great demand from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, as seen through the expansion of our Orlando service and this new flight to Myrtle Beach," Breeze Airways President Tom Doxey said in a release issued Wednesday.
The discount carrier, which launched in May 2021, expects to use its Embraer 195 jets for the flights, officials said.
