A Small Pennsylvania Airport Is Swapping Pittsburgh for Atlanta and Chicago

DuBois Regional Airport in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, is about to change airlines. Contour Airlines, selected by regulators earlier this month, will take over the airport’s Essential Air Service from Southern Airways Express beginning February 1, 2027.

The route map changes with it. Southern Airways Express currently flies from DuBois to Pittsburgh and Washington Dulles, and that service ends January 31, 2027. Contour will instead offer a daily flight to Atlanta and five weekly flights to Chicago O’Hare, operating on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Flights will use 30-seat regional aircraft, in keeping with the small-community model the federal program supports. Contour’s service term runs through January 31, 2031, which gives the airport four years of planned continuity, although the amount of the subsidy was not included in the report.

Essential Air Service exists to keep scheduled flights at small airports that might otherwise lose them. For travelers in the area, the swap trades two familiar destinations for two much larger hubs, which could open more onward connections even as it removes the direct Pittsburgh and Washington options.

Sources: AirlineGeeks