A new direct flight from Owensboro to Charlotte, N.C., is set to launch in February, with tickets expected to go on sale on Monday. The route will be operated by Contour Airlines out of Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport, and OWB officials say the feedback has already been positive.
The announcement came Thursday morning during the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce’s Rooster Booster event at MidAmerica Jet. According to Contour’s website, the Owensboro-to-Charlotte service is scheduled to begin February 26, with matching outbound and return flights listed at approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes each. The date also appears in route information embedded on the airline’s site.
Airport Director Tristan Durbin said the new service fulfills a long-running goal to expand beyond Chicago O’Hare, which earned the Essential Air Service contract in 2023 even though Charlotte was originally the airport board’s preferred option.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” Durbin said. “We currently have the Chicago O’Hare flight, and that’s doing well, but to be able to add a second hub to help connect the community to an even broader range of destinations is incredibly important and exciting.”
Durbin said Charlotte Douglas International Airport offers strong domestic and international connectivity and gives local travelers easier access to the eastern U.S., the southern coast, and the Caribbean.
“Charlotte is an incredible hub that offers a lot of different connection points to not just anywhere and everywhere in the United States, but also internationally,” he said. “It provides a really limitless kind of array of options for the community.”
Durbin said flights are scheduled five days per week. OWB will continue offering daily service to Chicago but will reduce its total Chicago flights from 12 per week to seven.
“Right now, we offer two daily flights to Chicago every day except for Tuesday and Saturday,” Durbin said. “The seven days a week to Chicago will remain, and we’ll have flights every day to Charlotte except for Tuesday and Saturday.”
Doug Hoyt, chair of the Owensboro Airport Board, said the addition of Charlotte effectively completes the plan the board originally endorsed.
“We like to think that this is just another way to connect Owensboro to the world,” Hoyt said. “We work hard all the time to try to enhance flight services to the community, and this is just another way that we’re able to do that.”
Hoyt said Contour originally proposed Charlotte-only service when bidding for the EAS contract two years ago, but circumstances at the time — including the disappearance of Chicago service in the broader region — pushed OWB toward O’Hare. Revisiting Charlotte recently became feasible after months of discussion with Contour and after the airline secured the gate space and logistics required in Charlotte.
Hoyt said the flexibility of having crews and aircraft based in Owensboro made the split schedule possible.
“The aircraft and the crew are based in Owensboro,” he said. “They will go out of Owensboro every day to Chicago, and five of those days they will also go to Charlotte and back, and they end their day in Owensboro. The opportunity for people not just to get to Charlotte, but to get home, is pretty exciting for me.”
Both Durbin and Hoyt emphasized that flying locally offers advantages compared to traveling to Nashville or Louisville.
“When you’re home, you’re home,” Durbin said. “You don’t have a two-hour drive through traffic at midnight.”
Hoyt said parking improvements at OWB were also made recently to streamline the passenger experience.
“People have had complaints for some time that the parking system at OWB was horrible,” Hoyt said. “We put in a new system, and it’s all on your phone, app-based. You go in, and you actually pay for your parking on your phone before you ever go into the terminal.”
Durbin said the new Charlotte option also maintains the same interline connectivity travelers currently enjoy.
“You can still use all the same interline partners in Charlotte with Contour that you can in Chicago,” he said, noting partners include American, United, Alaska, and others.
Hoyt said he believes Charlotte will be especially attractive for leisure travelers.
“Charlotte has built itself a very nice business model,” Hoyt said. “You can go internationally to many places out of Charlotte, but it is kind of known for warmer climates. If you travel to those types of places, you’ll notice that the connections are in Charlotte.”
He added that the announcement has already prompted a strong local reaction.
“I had two people this morning after the announcement say to me, ‘I’ve got to get on a flight to Charlotte. I’ve got to go to Evansville next week. I wish this was in Owensboro now,’” Hoyt said. “I think the demand is going to be good initially.”
The airport continues to explore additional routes, though Durbin reminded that any potential future service outside the EAS program must be profitable or supported through local or federal subsidies.
“For that Florida-type option, it would have to be profitable,” Durbin said. “Contour’s primary line of service is Essential Air Service. That’s a government program, and the funds come from the Department of Transportation.”
Hoyt said many communities across the country subsidize ultra-low-cost carriers, but those arrangements can be expensive.
“I know of communities that have put together a pool of money for an ultra-low-cost carrier to come in to ensure that carrier will not lose money,” he said. “One community I know raised a couple of million dollars, and it lasted for a year and a half. When the subsidies go away, the carrier goes away.”
For now, both leaders said they are focused on ensuring the new route succeeds while maintaining strong performance in Chicago.
“We’re going to keep working hard to advance the airport and to make it viable and to do the things that people want,” Hoyt said. “The airport, in some respects, is a hidden gem. But we’re going to keep doing it.”
