Roger Lee with Economic Development for Central Oregon says in order to get the direct flights to L.A., central Oregon has to raise 350-thousand dollars in local incentives.

He made the announcement at the annnual EDCO luncheon on Wednesday.

"We have two weeks to do this which normally takes a lot longer.  It's an unbelievably short time to get this done.  To my knowledge, it's never been done before.  But we're going to put together a travel bank.  Central Oregon has a reputation of getting stuff done and this is definitely in that spirit."

Central Oregon successfully used travel banks in 2005 to raise funds to bring Delta Airlines to central Oregon.  

EDCO has until March 15th to raise the funds -- which businesses can use as travel vouchers or credit cards to be used on American.

If approved, the flights could start this summer.