By Jon Seidel, Post-Tribune staff writer
GARY -- The city's airport is competing to go international, its director said Friday, with a carrier that wants to begin its flights to Mexico in September.
Chris Curry, director of the Gary/Chicago International Airport, said he is in talks with an airline that wants to provide service between Chicago and locations in Mexico.
He said the discussion started during a recent conference.
"We met with several air carriers," Curry said, "and there was one in particular that indicated an interest in serving the Chicago market because of the huge Hispanic and Latino population that we have here."
Curry wouldn't name the airline, but he said it wants to avoid Chicago's two major airports.
"It's clearly a competition, I believe, between us and Rockford (International Airport)," Curry said.
Rockford officials who could comment on Curry's remarks were not available Friday.
The catch in Gary, however, is that it would need to build a customs facility before September, something that Curry said shouldn't be too difficult.
He said he has written a letter to the federal government inquiring about the specifications for such a building.
"We could have a facility in place by then," Curry said.
In the meantime, Curry said he has made a tentative proposal to the airline.
"If it's accepted, then they will state their position publicly," Curry said.
Passenger flight service returns to Gary on March 13 as low-cost Skybus airlines offers morning and evening flights, seven days a week, to Piedmont Triad International Airport near Greensboro, N.C.