Now the wait begins.
Wood River Valley boosters of new airline service from Denver must cool their heels while Frontier Airlines sifts through proposals from 65 communities in the East and West and in between that were invited to make a pitch for new routes to their airports.
Virtually all Rocky Mountain ski resorts were invited by Frontier to appeal for service to their communities.
As if to stay ahead of the pack, the Blaine County Air Travel Advisory Group—an offshoot of the Sun Valley-etchum Chamber &Visitors Bureau—hired a professional, Kent Myers, to package a proposal to persuade Frontier to inaugurate new Denver service to Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey.
The proposal is for two daily flights during the summer and winter peak tourist periods, and a single flight year-round.
And to sweeten the proposed deal for Denver service, valley business interests have pledged $400,000 to market Denver-Friedman service with advertising and other sales activities.
Myers, president of AIRPLANNERS, an Avon, Colo., company specializing in helping communities attract new airline service, said Monday that "I feel very good about what we've presented to Frontier."
Frontier, Myers said, will announce to which communities it has decided to expand service on April 15.
The Denver-based airline has ordered a new fleet of Bombardier Q-400 turboprop airliners, the same 70-plus passenger aircraft operated out of Friedman by Horizon Air, for expanding its route system.
In the process of seeking the Frontier service, BCATAG has changed its name to the Fly Sun Valley Alliance, and is developing a Web site, FlytoSunValley.com, which will become part of the marketing program.
Sun Valley-Ketchum chamber Executive Director Carol Waller said business interests are so certain of a route's success that the proposal to Frontier did not include operating subsidies, known in the trade as minimum revenue guarantees.
"Sun Valley is a desirable market," she said. The $400,000 pledge for marketing would be aimed at potential travelers in Dallas, Houston, Denver and Washington, D.C., she added.
Waller pointed out that Horizon Air's new service from Friedman to Oakland and Los Angeles has increased available seats by 21 percent from 107,000 in 2003-2004 to 130,000 seats currently, and increased passenger traffic 44 percent from 50,000 to 73,000 in the same period
"More service means more bodies," Waller said.
