Beginning October 16, Manistee Blacker Airport will offer no more charter flights between Manistee and Chicago Midway. The reason? Aerodynamics Incorporated (ADI) – the air carrier operator for Public Charters, Inc., which has provided air service to Blacker Airport since last spring – announced it was terminating its service effective October 16. Public Charters, Inc. reports that the servicer will try to find another air carrier for the future but is “currently unable to say when or if this will occur.”

Blacker Airport director Barry Lind tells The Ticker that Public Charters is talking with five different carriers that could potentially come in and fill the void left by ADI. Is he optimistic? “Depends what hour you ask me,” he says, adding that he thinks a solution can be found in the long-term but in the short-term … ? “We’re hoping not to have interruptions in service, but given that ADI gave 10 days notice, it’s questionable whether or not another carrier can be brought in so quickly. Our biggest challenge right now is having such a small window of time.”

Lind says the Manistee County Airport Authority met Monday and is considering taking legal action against ADI for harm done to ticketed passengers and the airport. Public Charters is Manistee Blacker Airport’s only scheduled air service; the airport contracted with the servicer two weeks after Frontier Airlines ended service there last spring.

Manistee Blacker Airport passengers holding tickets for travel originating on or after October 16 will receive a full refund of their purchase amount. Passengers scheduled on a round-trip flight that departs before October 16 and scheduled to return on or after October 16 can cancel their round-trip flight for a full-refund or utilize a one-way flight, arrange for their own return transportation and receive a partial refund. Learn more here.