Improved air
service options explored
By TRAVIS
PURSER
Express Staff Writer
If you
provide air service, they will come.
That is the
gist of a new 115-page evaluation of Sun Valley’s airline market
contracted by the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce and Sun Valley
Resort.
Last year,
134,680 passengers flew in and out of the Hailey airport, while over twice
that flew in and out of each of three other mountain resort towns ¾
Aspen, Colo., Vail, Colo., and Jackson, Wyo. ¾ the report states. Each of
those resort towns also had about twice as many seats available on
commercial flights.
"There’re
the numbers for showing more seats will generally attract more
visitors," said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Carol Waller.
For Waller
and Sun Valley Resort general manager Wally Huffman, more visitors equals
a better local economy. The report, completed by Sixel, Boggs &
Associates Consulting of Eugene, Ore., is meant to help with that.
Here’s
what the consultants said area businesses should do:
-
Encourage
Horizon Air to begin flying its turboprop planes nonstop between
Hailey and Los Angeles and between Hailey and San Jose, Calif.
-
Encourage
Great Plains Airlines, which has shown interest in flying a
32-passenger jet nonstop between Hailey and Los Angeles and between
Hailey and San Jose.
-
Encourage
American Airlines to fly a small jet on the Hailey-to-Los Angeles
route.
-
Pursue
United Express service to Denver, where there are excellent
connections to eastern markets.
-
Ask
Northwest Airlines for a connection between Hailey and Minneapolis.
-
Ask Big
Sky Airlines for service between Hailey and Boise.
Currently,
SkyWest Airlines flies nine times daily between Hailey and Salt Lake City,
and Horizon flies once daily between Hailey and Seattle.
The report
was finished before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast and
the subsequent financial trouble in the airline industry.
"So
this (project) might have to be on hold until airlines are in a better
position to talk, which may take until the first of the year," Waller
said.
When those
talks begin, airlines will likely ask for a subsidy to cover any financial
losses involved with flying the new routes.
"Other
mountain resort communities are underwriting airline service at about a
million bucks" a year, Waller said. And she expects that the Sun
Valley area would need to spend the same amount. Both private and public
money could be involved.
The report
also states that the Hailey airport’s noise restrictions, high altitude
and short runway make it difficult to improve air service.
The Blaine
County Air Transportation Advisory Group, whose members include officials
from the airport, city governments, chambers of commerce, Sun Valley
Resort and private citizens, commissioned the report.
The group
will probably meet in several weeks to review the report and decide what
to do next, Waller said.