Direct flights from Elmira-Corning Regional Airport to Florida’s Gulf Coast will be starting in November. Allegiant, a travel company based out of Las Vegas which operates out of the Chemung County airport, announced the new service connecting Elmira-Corning to the St. Petersberg-Clearwater International Airport. Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli says that the new direct flight will hopefully bring people from Syracuse and Northern Pennsylvania to the Elmira-Corning Airport in order to reach the western coast of Florida. In 2008, Allegiant began a direct service from Elmira to Orlando, with two flights per week on 166-passenger jets. A deciding factor for the company to offer the direct flights to Florida out of Elmira, as opposed to Binghamton, was the Elmira Airport’s recently extended runway, which was lengthened from 7,600 feet to 8,000 feet.
