Progress continues on bringing commercial air service to Bowling Green as interest in the flights continues unabated.

“Our phones have been ringing off the hook,” Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport Manager Rob Barnett said Tuesday, about six weeks after it was announced that commercial air service is returning to the airport after a 44-year absence. Tennessee-based Contour Airlines will offer two round-trip flights to Atlanta on Monday through Friday and one round-trip flight Saturday and Sunday. It will also offer two weekly flights to Destin, Fla., through October. The flights are expected to start on a date to be determined in August.

While the exact flight times and fares have not been finalized, work to prepare for the flights continues, including plans for the building that will be used as a terminal.

A temporary building that’s being constructed in Tennessee will be erected at the airport to house offices, ticketing desks, security screening and a waiting area. That process was delayed somewhat by higher than anticipated bids. The airport sought bids to extend utilities to the temporary building that would also be sufficient for a permanent terminal if one were built in the future, but the bids came in at $300,000-plus instead of the expected $90,000.

“We are modifying the scope of the project” to accommodate the temporary building, Barnett said. Once a modified bid is approved, as early as this week, the goal is to get the infrastructure in place within two weeks with the portable terminal building arriving from Tennessee soon after.

Officials are holding off on a permanent building – a roughly $1.8 million investment – until air service proves to be viable long-term. “If we achieve the load factor, then we’ll build a building,” Barnett said previously. Leasing the portable building will cost about $3,500 a month.

The airport is also in the process of hiring part-time ground crew staff to do tasks such as maintenance and baggage handling, while the Transportation Security Administration has been advertising for screeners to work at the airport. TSA screening equipment is also expected to arrive in Bowling Green in the next week or so and airport officials have been working with the Bowling Green Fire Department and Warren County Sheriff’s Office on safety and security procedures.

One new employee who has been onboard for about three weeks is Susan Harmon, director of airport operations.

Harmon previously spent 13 years as a professor of office systems technology at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College.

Harmon has spent the first few weeks gearing up to manage the daily operations of the airport in support of the commercial service.

“I enjoy that every day is different,” she said.

Bowling Green’s CrowdSouth has been hired to do marketing of the service in a 10-county area where most of the tickets are expected to be sold.

Barnett and Harmon, as well as local tourism officials, have also been working to market the Bowling Green area in Florida and Georgia with the hope that the return flights from Atlanta and Destin carry visitors to the land of Corvettes and caves.

“That’s incredibly important for us,” Barnett said.

There has been no trouble generating enthusiasm for the outbound flights from Bowling Green.

Along with the constant stream of calls, “everywhere I go in the community, people are asking me questions, and that’s what we want,” Barnett said.

He said a large percentage of the queries are coming in concerning the Destin route as people make late summer/fall break travel plans.

Harmon said among the main selling points of the local service, as opposed to driving south to fly out of Nashville, are lower costs and ease of use.

Along with not charging for parking, “we’re selling convenience,” she said. While national news is filled with stories about hours-long waits to get through airport security lines, “our wait line should be five to 10 minutes,” she said.

— Follow city government reporter Wes Swietek on Twitter @BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.