AVIS, Pa. — Getting Davenport Northwest Little League home from the 2026 Little League Baseball World Series required more than an airport transfer. It took coordination between motorcoach operators in Pennsylvania and the Chicago area.
Susquehanna Trailways transported the Iowa team to the airport, then worked with Aries Trailways to provide a motorcoach from Chicago to Davenport. The arrangement allowed the team to avoid waiting for a connecting flight.
For Amy Brooks, vice president of sales at Susquehanna Trailways, the trip illustrates why relationships among carriers are essential to serving an event with constantly changing transportation needs.
“It can be an extremely challenging event to manage, with obstacles we cannot control,” Brooks said.
Weather, airline schedules and service disruptions can require quick adjustments. Other carriers provide backup when requests extend beyond Susquehanna’s capacity or geographic reach, she said.
Difficult scheduling
For decades, Susquehanna Trailways has helped transport teams participating in the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Its work includes airport pickups, trips outside the area during the tournament and transportation for teams beginning their journeys home.
Aries Trailways and Fullington Trailways also helped meet transportation needs this year.
The tournament features 20 teams, with 10 representing U.S. regions and 10 representing international regions. Teams arrive through different airports and on different schedules, while tournament results determine when many are ready to leave.
Those variables make it difficult to schedule every trip in advance. An elimination can create a new departure request, while an airline disruption can require another transportation plan.
Susquehanna’s membership in the Trailways network connects it with operators that can supply drivers and equipment when a trip extends beyond what the company can handle on its own.
For the Davenport team, that meant coordinating ground transportation at both ends of a flight, with Aries handling the final leg from Chicago to Iowa. Aries also assisted with transportation through the Chicago area for another tournament earlier in August.
Experience at work
Eric Feerrar of AAA North Central Pennsylvania, who helps coordinate travel for the Little League World Series, said Susquehanna’s experience and industry relationships helped resolve the team’s last-minute request.
“We have a long, rich history of working with Susquehanna Trailways. Over the decades, the attention to driver safety, care for our clients, travel expertise and access to the Trailways network have been irreplaceable. At the Little League World Series, I knew I could rely on that expertise to navigate a difficult, last-minute request and find a way to get the team home.”
Susquehanna Trailways, a third-generation family business based in Avis, began operating in 1952 with school buses and motorcoaches. It joined the Trailways network in 1983. (Susquehanna Trailways)
The company provides charter transportation for schools, colleges, churches, businesses and other groups. It also operates a tour division offering domestic and international trips.
Founded in 1936, Trailways is a network of independent motorcoach operators serving the United States and Canada. Those connections help carriers coordinate trips between airports, tournament sites and hometowns when one operator cannot handle the entire journey.
Despite the challenges, Brooks said the tournament remains an event her team looks forward to serving.
“We bring the world to Williamsport!” she said.
