Cincinnati airport keeps direct flight to Canada

Friday's Business headlines

DAYTON — Air Canada has given notice that it will end its Dayton-to-Toronto nonstop flights on May 1, costing Dayton International Airport its only direct, scheduled commercial service to an international destination.

Terrence Slaybaugh, Dayton’s director of aviation, said Thursday that Air Canada has chosen to concentrate instead on the direct service it has been offering since May 2010 from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Toronto. The service from Cincinnati is aboard 50-seat regional jet aircraft, compared with the 19-seat Beechcraft 1900 turboprop planes Air Canada is flying from Dayton, which gives the airline more seat capacity at a time when increasing fuel prices are prompting carriers to eliminate some flights.

Air Canada’s ridership from Dayton to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport had declined steadily throughout 2010 and into early this year. The competing service from Cincinnati took a toll on the Dayton ridership, Dayton officials acknowledged.

— John Nolan, staff writer

Steelmaker, Indiana county in tax dispute

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A $20 million property tax dispute between AK Steel and southern Indiana’s Spencer County is headed for a federal jury next month.

A lawsuit by the Spencer County Redevelopment Commission accuses the company of violating an agreement for $100 million in tax incentives on its Indiana steel mill by appealing its property tax bill. At issue are seven years of payments totaling more than $20 million.

The trial is set for April 11.

The Evansville Courier & Press reports the suit alleges AK Steel improperly tried to take advantage of a tax depreciation schedule intended for older steel mills. The Rockport plant was built in 1997.

An attorney for West Chester Twp., Ohio-based AK Steel didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

— Associated Press