Get ready, jet set
Horizon turboprops make origin-destination flights pie in the sky
It was like a "big pillow."
Sun Valley Co. general manager Wally Huffman describing a
Boeing 737 landing in Hailey
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Despite what you may think about traffic and crowds, tourist numbers and
revenues are not all they could be in the Wood River Valley, and the resort industry
blames poor accessibility.
What the area needs, industry leaders say, is fast, reliable, comfortable,
nonstop, origin-destination flights from major cities all over the United Statesand
that means bringing in regularly scheduled jet service. But airlines claim problems with
safety and economics prevent that from happening anytime soon.
To get here now, tourists from major metropolitan areas must, for the most
part, first fly into Boise or Salt Lake City, then jump onto small turboprops for the
final, bouncy jaunt into Hailey.
Ski magazine last winter rated Sun Valley the bestyet most
inaccessibleresort in the nation. Resort planners blame the difficult trek for the
resorts running at only 50 to 70 percent capacity during the winter. Numbers for the
summer, they say, are a little higher.
Making the area better connected with the outside world is a Rubiks
Cube of a problem that local retailers, resort planners and air carriers have grappled
with for years.
The Ketchum/Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce and Horizon airlinesone
of the valleys two regularly scheduled air carriers, along with Skywestmade
little progress with the issue last Thursday during an annual marketing luncheon at the
Sun Valley Lodge.
Horizon officials talked of improved turboprop service, while some chamber
of commerce members seemed nonplused by the airlines reluctance to offer jet
service.
Imagine a 60-ton Boeing 737, with its some 130 passengers, 22,000 pounds
of thrust, 7,000-gallon fuel capacity and 112-foot wingspan, making its final, delicate
descent into Haileys single-runway Friedman Memorial Airport.
It was like a "big pillow" landing, Sun Valley Co. general
manager Wally Huffman told a reporter, remembering when America West offered 737 service
regularly to Hailey for awhile in 1991.
Huffman likes jets, no doubt about it. Jets, he said, would allow
origin-destination service to replace the existing hub service, effectively eliminating
the accessibility issue.
Unfortunately for Huffman, not everyone agrees a 737 landing in Hailey is
soft, fluffy and benign. In 1991, residents in the south county, especially Hailey and
Bellevue, voiced concerns about safety and noise.
Even Huffman admits bringing the big jets into the airport required making
"some exceptions" to Federal Aviation Administration guidelines. Perhaps
reacting to the 737s, residents from the south county sought seats and gained a majority
on the Airport Commissionthe body with the final word on airport planning
issuesand soon nixed the big planes.
While [the America West service] lasted, it was a "highly successful
venture" for retailers and the resort, Huffman said, though even with a guaranteed
financial subsidy from the publicly-funded chamber of commerce, the airline lost money on
the deal. Ultimately, it didnt work, he said, because people in the south county saw
it as a "north-south competitive issue," as well as a safety and noise problem.
Still, after nearly a decade, the resort industry wants its jets.
Huffman said the resorts "No. 1 priority" now is extending
the airport and its runway south, so safety wont be so much of a factor in
preventing jet service. If Horizons numbers are to be believedand Huffman said
he doesnt believe themthat could mean adding another 2,400 feet to the current
6,602-foot strip.
With a six-year renovation of the airport nearing completion this year,
immediate additional expansion seems unlikely. Also, airport manager Rick Baird said the
airport currently does not have enough room for a 2,400-foot runway extension.
Aircraft technology has come a long way in the last half decade. Today, it
seems unlikely any air carrier would consider flying a 737, or similar size aircraft, into
Hailey. Instead, the resort shows keen interest in new, exceedingly popular regional
jetsusually called RJswhich are 50- to 70-seat versions of their big jet
counterparts.
RJs fly higher, faster and farther with greater efficiency than
turboprops. The minijets are remarkably quiet and, industry experts say, popular with
passengers because their smooth flight characteristics make them as comfortable as larger
jets. Airlines say the minijets could mean more nonstop service to regional airports
traditionally served by turboprops.
All that may sound like good news for the chamber of commerce crowd, but
theres a catchairlines say they have no intention of flying RJs into Hailey
for the indefinite future. Mostly, thats because the minijets, while flying high and
fast once airborne, dont have adequate "short field" performance to take
off from Hailey, Bruce Lecklenbury, Horizons director of scheduling, told the
luncheon gathering. Altitude, ambient temperature and cargo load, all affect the little
jets take-off performance, which means in Hailey the planes would need a 9,000-foot
runway, he said.
Another problem with jet service, Horizon says, is economics. A turboprop
costs $6 million to $15 million, compared to around $20 million for each of the nearly 30
RJs Horizon has on order from Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Aircraft Corp. At that
price, Dan Russo, Horizons director of marketing communication, told the gathering
the airline cannot afford to serve Haileys relatively small market with RJs, where
planes can sit idle on the ground for long periods of time.
Thursday, Russo announced Horizon will replace its existing 37-seat Dash8
Q200 turboprops with 70-seat Dash8 Q400s. Horizon plans to serve Hailey with the larger
new turboprops not only because they are better suited than jets to high-altitude airports
surrounded by mountains, but also because they have better "seat costs" than
most other planes, including RJs, Russo said. In other words, the new turbos are the most
economical plane to fly into the valley.
Russo said the new turboprops allow the airline to double its number of
seats without adding another flight.
"The economics of the Q400 offer us the best opportunity to be
profitable in Sun Valley," Russo said, "which is a point on a year-round basis
that weve never reached." And despite all the hype about RJs, Russo said he
thinks that "once people get on the [Q400], theyre not going to say never
again, theyre going to say, this is really nicemaybe even
better than what they had before."
Whatever the case, Russo said Horizon will continue to be a turboprop
operator despite fears among the local resort industry that air carriers will dump the
old-style planes in favor of RJs, effectively leaving Sun Valley without regularly
scheduled air service.
"Some carriers have made statements about going all jet,"
Horizon vice president of marketing and planning Pat Zachwieja said in an interview last
month with the Mountain Express. "But thats certainly not true for
Horizon." Russo said, however, that the new Q400s could mean fewer flights per day
between Boise and Hailey, since the larger planes can carry more passengers per trip.
If Horizon is reluctant to make any major changes in the way it serves the
Wood River Valley, that could be because the company pulled off somewhat of a coup last
winter by providing service between Boise and Hailey without needing a promised $100,000
subsidy from Sun Valley Co. and the Ketchum/Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce. The airline
was, in fact, so pleased with the demand for the route that it agreed to add daily
Boise-Sun Valley flights for the summer and will likely continue the service through the
winter seasonthis time without a revenue guarantee.
Still, Sun Valley Co. manager Huffman said the resort area does not yet
have a tenth of what it needs in terms of air service. He is deeply suspicious of the idea
that the Hailey airport runway is too short for RJs.
"Today, we heard 9,000 feet, and I dont believe it," he
said. "I can tell you, if [Horizon] had extra RJs and there was a demand, that 9,000
number would probably drop to about seven."
Where will all this end up? Thats almost impossible to know, it
seems. But Huffman said he thinks whatever eventually happens will probably involve
"an equal dose of safety and an equal dose of economics."