Although disappointed once that Frontier Airlines bypassed Friedman Memorial Airport when expanding its service in the Rocky Mountains, the airport's governing board is launching a new effort to lure the Denver-based air carrier into opening a Denver-Friedman route.
Friedman Memorial Airport Authority members agreed Tuesday, April 6, to ask one of their consultants, Mead and Hunt, to conduct a study to determine the financial viability of such service and whether it might require community groups to pony up subsidies—minimum-revenue guarantees—to cover airline losses.
Frontier's possible interest in a route was outlined by Carol Waller, executive director of the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau, who told the airport board members that any service would involve the 80-passenger, twin-jet Embraer 170.
Frontier recently announced it was selling its 78-passenger Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes and replacing them with the E-170s.
Waller said the chamber is ramping up fundraising efforts to underwrite the costs of an economic study. Also endorsing the study was Maurice Charlat, president of the Fly Sun Valley Alliance, a business group that promotes air service, who said it's "very, very important" for the community to be involved.
Sun Valley City Councilman Dewayne Briscoe told the airport authority that some of the $50,000 set aside in the city budget could be tapped for some costs.
"We're beggars," Briscoe said, saying the burden is on the community to persuade Frontier to provide the service.
Former airport authority member Len Harlig, now the senior member of the new Blaine County Airport Advisory Committee, suggested the study would be a "business expense of the airport" in developing new air service.
Airport Manager Rick Baird said he believes Mead and Hunt would conduct the study at minimal costs, since it had accumulated some data that was to be used if Q400s were operated on the route.
County Commissioner Larry Schoen, an airport authority member, said he supports the study, but cautioned that any talk of possible new jet service to Friedman should not be misinterpreted.
"Some might think this is a way of expanding the airport," he said. "We don't want that."
The airport authority is in the process of trying to relocate Friedman out of the Wood River Valley, mainly because the field does not meet specifications to land larger planes.
The Q400 and the E-170 have different operating characteristics, board member and private plane owner Ron Fairfax pointed out, suggesting those differences must be studied.
Baird agreed, saying the E-170's low wing design creates clearance problems not encountered by the high-wing Q400. But he said low-wing, high-performance private jets using Friedman have not posed problems, such as clearing snow banks.
He pointed out, too, that the E-170 is a C-III category airplane, which is above the design standard of Friedman, like others now operating there. When C-III aircraft are landing or taking off, all taxiing aircraft on the field must be halted and held in position away from the runway.
The E-170 is built by the same firm that supplies SkyWest Airlines with the 30-passenger, twin turboprop Brasilia 120, which services Friedman on the Salt Lake City route. The Q400s sold by Frontier are the same model aircraft used by Horizon Air on service to Friedman from California and Seattle.
A key question in the economic study is whether 170s can be operated profitably from Friedman, since the airport's higher altitude and summer temperatures require longer takeoff runs that could require reduced fuel and passenger loads. For that reason, SkyWest has not used its similar-sized regional jets on the Friedman route.
A Horizon Air Q400 turboprop sits next to the terminal at Friedman Memorial Airport. Service on Frontier would likely be on twin-jet, 80-passenger aircraft.
Photo by Mountain Express
