A powwow this month between Delta Air Line and Moore County Airport officials might decide the future of the area's regular passenger service.

Airport Manager Ron Maness and others on the airline task force and Airport Authority have asked for a meeting, tentatively set for Oct. 27, to assess the first few months of inaugural service in Moore County in four years.

The airport lost regular passenger service in April 2002, when U.S. Airways dropped the local stop from its schedule amid ongoing airline industry economic problems and in the wake of the 2001 terrorism attacks.

Many smaller airports in the country and state suffered similar cuts by other airlines or lost service altogether.

After strenuous effort, Maness and a volunteer airline task force managed to get Moore County together with Delta Air lines to work out a contract to resume regular service on a trial basis. The first season started June 22, and the last day of the current seasonal flight service is Nov. 13.

A 2007 schedule is roughed out in the contract, starting in March and ending in mid-November, conservatively coinciding with traditional spring and fall heavy golfer traffic headed for Pinehurst Resort.

"We aren't where we had hoped to be at this point," said Maness, adding that the overall 62 percent load factor recorded for the once-daily flights, six days a week between here and Atlanta, is "respectable."

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