A long-anticipated analysis of whether a new Wood River Valley airport would prosper was unveiled this week with a single, overarching conclusion: Replacing Friedman Memorial Airport would create an economic surge of new travelers and new airlines serving more markets.
The rosy picture is contained in a sweeping study conducted for the Federal Aviation Administration by its consultant, Landrum & Brown, which has a multimillion-dollar contract to complete an environmental impact study to pinpoint a recommended preferred site for a larger new airfield.
In a 135-page aviation activity forecast and a 60-page analysis of the passenger market, plus a 19-page summary, Landrum & Brown's general conclusions are:
· A new all-weather airport with at least one 8,500-foot runway free of terrain obstructions would attract new airline service with larger jets of the size of the 120-seat Boeing 737, linking more major U.S. markets.
· Current passenger enplanements of some 70,000 per year would soar to 140,000 by 2030.
· The new airport would stanch the leakage of travelers to the Boise airport, adding to the leap in passengers using a new Wood River Valley facility. The study found airfares from Friedman were 55 percent higher as a rule than from Boise airport, 15 percent higher than Twin Falls.
The reports are now posted on the Friedman Web site and can be accessed at http://www.airportsites.net/SUN-EIS/working_papers.htm.
However, on hand to dispute the optimistic forecasts was valley real estate executive Dick Fenton, who said he doesn't believe the region could provide the prosperous operations the report anticipates. Fenton has been a long-standing critic of closing Friedman. The FAA has announced that Friedman cannot meet safety standards for the new generation of aircraft and could not be modified to continue operations indefinitely.
Landrum & Brown president Mark Perryman first unveiled the reports Tuesday night at the monthly meeting of the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority, then on Wednesday at a joint public meeting of the Ketchum and Sun Valley city councils (see accompanying story).
Filled with statistical minutia bolstering conclusions about the viability of a new airport, the reports were amassed from the operations histories of Friedman as well as airports in Boise and Twin Falls, plus interviews with 1,000 passengers, executives of seven airlines that might serve the Wood River Valley in the future, general aviation and corporate pilots who use Friedman and local business operators.
Airlines in the survey were those now serving Boise and Twin Falls (Allegiant, Big Sky, Frontier, Northwest, United and U.S. Airways) plus American and Continental.
While indicating an interest in serving the Wood River Valley, they pointed to restrictions now in place at Friedman Memorial as the reason for not serving the area. Friedman has a runway weight limit of 95,000 pounds. Without an all-weather landing system at the airport and surrounded by terrain on three sides, air carriers experience costly weather diversions and cancellations. Friedman's terrain also virtually prohibits large aircraft from conducting missed approaches and executing a climb to altitude.
December and January flight cancellations and diversions, the study noted, continue to be major travel impediments at Friedman, with 21 percent of operations affected for the two months.
At a new airport, according to the Landrum & Brown reports, while passenger volume would double by the year 2030, air carrier operations actually would remain steady or decrease because more passengers could be carried in fewer, larger aircraft. SkyWest Airlines, which accounts for more than 60 percent of passenger traffic in and out of Friedman, now serves Friedman with its 30-seat Embraer Brasilia while Horizon Air operates the 74-seat Bombardier Q400. Both are turboprops.
Perryman pointed out that a foreboding question mark hangs over the valley's air service beginning in 2012. SkyWest has announced it hopes to retire the turboprops serving Friedman with 50-seat regional jets, which would not serve Friedman. A new airport would not open before 2014, assuming no obstacles occur.
He speculated that perhaps because Friedman is such a good market, SkyWest might postpone the fleet retirement.
In a wide-ranging comparison of the Sun Valley resort area with 10 other Rocky Mountain ski resorts, the study listed drive times from airports to ski destinations, air fare averages and the number of air carriers serving the areas.
The path to a new airport, however, is littered with bureaucratic hurdles, not the least of which would be getting approval from the Bureau of Land Management to locate an airport at site 10-A in south Blaine County east of state highway 75.
BLM Field Manager Lori Armstrong ticked off a bewildering list of time-consuming requirements for the airport authority to obtain the land, either through outright purchase, a land swap or lease.
On Monday and Tuesday, Federal Aviation Administration consultant Mark Perryman, left, and FAA Environmental Specialist Cayla Morgan, right, presented the aviation activity forecast and economic impact analysis of a potential replacement airport for Hailey’s Friedman Memorial. These reports, available online, come toward the conclusion of the first phase of the FAA’s environmental impact statement. The next step will be to choose the optimal replacement site and conduct more thorough research how to develop that location.
Photo by David N. Seelig
