Members of the Penn State community and the surrounding area now have a new list of options for flying out of the University Park Airport.

Starting tomorrow, a new jet service will be offered by Comair, a Delta Connection carrier, and will run flights non-stop to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport three times a day.

The service takes passengers to Cincinnati because the airport there is the second largest hub for Delta, University Park Airport manager Bob Dannaker said.

Travelers can then take connecting flights to anywhere Delta flies, he added.

"We don't really care about going to Cincinnati, but from there we can connect to the world," said Robert Finley, Commonwealth Operations assistant vice president of finance and business.

"It opens up a whole new world of destinations," he said.

Faculty and athletic teams will also find the service useful, since Delta has connections to the cities that house Big Ten universi ties, Finley said.

Finley was one of the Penn State administrators who took a short flight on the jet June 24. The plane flew 30 passengers in a large circle over the State College area to demonstrate the aircraft's capabilities, Finley said.

The service will use a Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ). Although it is not much bigger than the turbo-prop airplanes that normally fly to State College, the jet will offer a faster, smoother and more comfortable flight, Finley said.

The plane is quieter because it is powered by jet engines in the back instead of a propeller on each wing. The cabin is especially spacious because it is the same size as a 50-passenger design, but has only 40 seats, which are more spread out, he added.

The CRJ aircraft is not new to the University Park Airport. Finley said the plane has been used for 88 charter flights since December. However, this is the first time the jet will be put into a regularly scheduled service. The addition makes Delta the fourth airline that flies out of University Park, along with US Airways, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines.

Mariana Garcia (freshman-bioengineering) said she thinks more students will be likely to fly straight to State College. Garcia lives in Florida and said she usually takes a bus to Pittsburgh and flies out of the airport there. She said she would feel better about flying in a jet instead of the smaller propeller planes.

"You don't know how safe the little planes are," she said. "A lot of people are afraid of flying, and they will probably feel safer if they see a jet."

Dannaker said jets will become a more common sight at the University Park Airport when Northwest Airlines adds regular jet services to its schedule. They will start next month with one flight between State College and Detroit each week in a regional jet. In September, the airline will increase the jet's flights to one per day.

Both Dannaker and Finley said they think the competition will cause other carriers to offer jet service. "[The Delta service] makes other airlines say, 'If we're going to keep our business, we have to upgrade,' " Finley said.

Finley said the different airlines will also be competing with their prices, which could lead to lower fares.

The new service will be an added convenience for students and people in the community, Garcia said.

"Some people go through Philadelphia or Pittsburgh because they don't want to take the propeller planes," she said. "[The jets] will definitely increase the flow of people who fly to University Park because it's a lot closer."