After World War I, the idea of opening an airport in the
Roanoke Valley became a priority for local leaders. The intended purpose was to provide a landing strip, aircraft storage, and a flight school. A proposal for runway expansion and facilities upgrades was developed in 1975 but was put on hold while a new regional airport was being studied. With the runway extension underway, the airport changed its name from Roanoke Municipal Airport to Roanoke Regional Airport in 1983. The runway expansion was completed in 1985. $15.4 million was secured in state and local authorities covered local funding, and the remainder. The renaming did not occur as a result of the economic downturn in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, however. Airport officials estimate that around a third of airline tickets purchased by area residents are for travel from other airports. Competition includes
Piedmont Triad International Airport near
Greensboro,
North Carolina, and others farther away that have service from
Southwest Airlines or international flights. Aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd compared Roanoke's level of air service favorably to similarly sized cities. and
Tampa in December 2006 with
Allegiant Air. This was part of an effort to bring new and improved service to the airport with existing and new carriers. Earlier attempts to lobby
AirTran Airways and the now defunct
Independence Air to serve the airport were unsuccessful.
Airlines Airline service to Roanoke commenced in 1933. American Airlines left Roanoke in 1962,
Eastern Airlines flew to Roanoke until 1978, but the original
Piedmont Airlines was the most important. From Roanoke, Piedmont flew non-stop to many airports, including:
Atlanta,
Charlotte,
Chicago–O'Hare,
Greensboro,
Louisville,
Nashville,
Newark,
Pittsburgh,
Richmond, and
Washington–Reagan. Piedmont continued to serve Roanoke through its merger with USAir, and the final Piedmont flights from Roanoke were on August 4, 1989. During Piedmont's dominance, several regional airlines began and ended service to Roanoke. Between October 29, 1978, and February 1979,
Allegheny Airlines flew nonstop to Pittsburgh, In January 1996
Continental Express flew to its Newark hub; it pulled out on November 1, 1997. Other carriers at Roanoke had decreased the number of destinations served from Roanoke since the early 1990s.
US Airways Express had eliminated non-stop service to
Baltimore,
Charlottesville,
Dayton, Pittsburgh and Washington-Reagan since 1990, and Delta eliminated service to
Cincinnati on
Chautauqua Airlines in September 2008. In 2010, Delta and Northwest Airlink merged, decreasing operations at ROA. ==Facilities==