Aiming high

COLUMBIA BASIN - Local organizations are waiting on word from area businesses to determine the interest in restoring air service to Grant County International Airport.

Surveys were given during the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce and Big Bend Community College's quarterly Chamber Day at BBCC program Tuesday at the community college's ATEC Building.

The survey asks company decision makers how many round trips are traveled per year by plane, how many driving trips to Seattle, how many driving trips would be replaced by flying to Seattle if possible and their top three travel destinations.

Port of Moses Lake Executive Manager Craig Baldwin shared the efforts so far to restore air service after the termination in 2006 of the federal Essential Air Service subsidy and subsequent suspended service by then-carrier Big Sky Airlines.

Baldwin shared such airline industry trends as loss of air service in small communities and decreasing orders for aircraft containing fewer than 50 seats. Baldwin noted the cost per seat per mile decreases the larger the aircraft, comparing a 30 -cent cost per seat per mile of a 19-seat Beech 1900 to the 8-cent cost per seat per mile in a 130-seat Boeing 737-300.

As competition is increasing, Baldwin said, communities are having to become more aggressive and offer airlines larger support packages for their service.

The Moses Lake catchment area, or the amount of people in the area who fly, is estimated to be about 96,724, Baldwin said. Numbers show more than 114,000 individual flights were made in 2006 by residents within the catchment area.

Current feedback shows residents want aircraft with at least 30 seats and four flights per day, Baldwin said.

In order to achieve that estimate, the community would have to guarantee an occupancy rate of 65 percent for the airline to break even, the equivalent of 156 people per day on flights, or 56,940 individual trips when that number is multiplied by 365.

"We only need 49 percent of our people flying out of Moses Lake to fill four flights a day," Baldwin said. "It is possible, the airline sees that, but it takes a commitment from us to do that."

The chamber and Grant County Economic Development Council are looking for pledges from 100 or more businesses to use an air service once it arrives. Once the surveys are returned, the organizations and the port will use the information in discussions with airlines.

Chamber Executive Director Debbie Doran Martinez asked surveys be returned by April 1.

Council Executive Director Terry Brewer, Baldwin and Doran-Martinez emphasized the importance of having a large number of entities showing their commitment to air service, rather than having several large companies providing the bulk of the necessary funding.

Airports will expect the community to promote flights into Moses Lake outside of the region as well as promoting use within Moses Lake of the air service, they added.

Baldwin said a company's pledge is not a formal commitment, but a tool to show airlines the demand in the area. Companies would not be expected to commit if an air service does not meet the community's needs, he added, but once an airline comes in, the companies would quickly need to make a real commitment.

A travel bank would be a commitment to use the service once it was in place. Companies would put a portion of their travel budget in a prepaid account and make travel purchases from that account.

Money put into the travel bank would need to be used within one year or be lost by the company, but Brewer, Baldwin and Doran-Martinez said companies could use their travel bank account in any destination in the same airline code share service beyond Moses Lake origins.

The organizations hope there would be enough people traveling and participating in the travel bank that a revenue guarantee would never need to be used.

"We're talking about a change in habits to get people to say, 'OK, you can get air service here, I'll make that commitment,'" Brewer said.