Ron Hamacher used to regularly endure six-hour layovers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on return Northwest Airlines international flights to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, near Latrobe.
"I'd fly all the way from China on business, and I'd have to wait all that time for a one-hour flight home," said Hamacher, 39, of Derry. "It took too much time to check my luggage, go through customs and recheck my luggage to fly domestic to make the 2 p.m. flight, so I had to wait for the 9:30 (p.m. return flight)."
So Hamacher, a marketing manager for Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics in Latrobe, instead takes his roughly 12,000 miles of annual international air travel to and from Pittsburgh International Airport.
"The only benefit of driving to Pittsburgh to fly is avoiding that layover -- that's it," Hamacher said. "(Arnold Palmer) is so much more convenient for me."
So Arnold Palmer Regional officials are asking Hamacher and other members of the area's business community to speak out about their desire to have easier international travel to and from the Unity facility.
The goal is to persuade Northwest Airlines officials at the Detroit facility to improve international flight connections by adding another daily return flight to Arnold Palmer Regional at 5 p.m., said Gabe Monzo, Arnold Palmer Regional manager.
"We realize that there is a situation where international travelers are facing long layovers in Detroit on return flights, and we're talking with the airline to try to come up with a way to alleviate that," Monzo said. "We need the community to speak up and tell us what kind of service they would support."
"Nothing's definite, but we're hopeful that if we get enough input, it could make a big difference," Monzo said.
Monzo said those wishing to contribute can do so via e-mail at gmonzo@palmerairport.com. Responders should confirm whether they or their companies have a need for international flight service, and if so, how often.
Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 900 cities in more than 160 countries on six continents, said Dwayne Pickels, Arnold Palmer Regional spokesman. Many are nonstop from Detroit, Pickels said.
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