Big Sky changes ML services to land in Portland, Boise

Passengers still able to connect to Seattle through shuttle

MOSES LAKE — A change in air service has the folks at Big Sky Airlines hopeful for growth.

Beginning Feb. 5, the airline will change its service out of Moses Lake.

"Currently, we operate three flights a day between Moses Lake and Seattle," said Big Sky executive vice president Craig Denney. "We'll be changing that, and no longer serving the Seattle market. We'll going to be changing to Portland service two flights a day and one flight to Boise, Idaho."

Increased operating costs in Seattle were a big factor in switching to Portland, Big Sky manager of marketing programs Lynette Goodman said, as well as more user-friendly terminals and ease of making connections in Boise and Portland. Other issues with Seattle included weather, especially with fog at this time of year, and congestion.

"We don't operate large aircraft, and so we kind of end up getting parked wherever no one else is parked at," Denney said. "The adding of Portland gives us an airport that will improve our reliability because of the weather patterns. You can make the same connections in Portland as you can in Seattle."

The same co-chair operators, like Alaska Airlines, work with Big Sky in Portland as they do in Seattle, he said. That means reliability will be much improved, passengers will be able to make their connections and those who need to go to Seattle only will be able to to make connections in Portland, on the Verizon Air shuttle flight that goes to Seattle every 30 minutes.

"A person can still go from Moses Lake to Seattle, do a day's worth of business and be at home at night," Denney said.

The company will also use its EASY Fares program, which can be purchased at any time, Goodman and Denney said. A computer will be set up at the GCIA so that passengers can see where they can connect to other airlines from the Portland terminal.

Big Sky Airlines has been contracting with the Washington State Department of Transportation for three years to offer Essential Air Service at GCIA.

Last year, the company absorbed increased operating costs under the program while at the Seattle airport, which had gone up about 20 percent. This time, the company needed to pass costs on with a new contract, Denney said, which would not have been possible in Seattle because the service would have exceeded the cost per passenger requirement to keep the EAS subsidy.

Cost per passenger is determined from an annual subsidy requirement pay divided by the projected number of customers carried, and not cost to the passenger, Denney and Port industrial development manager Albert Anderson said.

"Truly, if we were not changing hubs from Seattle to Portland, we probably wouldn't be here today, because there would not be a new contract," Denney said.

Port manager Craig Baldwin said that the service is still right on the limit at the $200 cost per passenger maximum requirement, and the WSDOT has cautioned that those costs need to be maintained as much as possible.

"One way to reduce those costs, of course, is more passengers flying," Baldwin said. "More passengers flying also entails more service and more connection. We're working together to try and increase that and that would bring those rates back down again."

Big Sky is working with Verizon and Alaska Airlines to ensure that passengers will still be able to get to Seattle through Portland in a day's trip. Boise offers new connections to carriers for travelers in the east and south, instead of having to travel to Seattle to make a flight to Chicago, Denney said. It will also improve reliability when a flight is canceled because of a mechanical problem, he said.

"Communities the size of Moses Lake, to have two hubs — Portland and Boise — is pretty neat," Denney said. "You don't see very much of that happening in our industry right now."