Support sought for air service

MOSES LAKE — Informational meetings about restoring commercial air service to Grant County started Tuesday with two Eugene, Ore.-based consultants fielding questions from businesses about the details.

SkyWest Airlines, a partner with United Airlines, tentatively agreed in December to start passenger service at the Grant County International Airport.

The airline could provide two daily flights from Moses Lake to Seattle if 100 businesses commit to the service and if $500,000 is committed for airline tickets by Feb. 13, consultant Mike Boggs said.

People need to write their checks by Feb. 20 and the minimum pledge per business is $2,500.

Community members first presented the airline travel bank figures to SkyWest, said Terry Brewer, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council.

Already, the EDC received five pledges totaling $112,500 in support, Brewer said.

The purpose of the meetings with the business community is to talk about what businesses can do to help restart air service, Boggs explained.

“We need your help,” Brewer said.

Businesses are being targeted because they will fly to Seattle more regularly than vacation flyers. Forty percent of customers who provide 70 percent of the revenue are business customers, Boggs noted.

Air service to smaller communities is convenience and connections for businesses, he said.

Boggs explained if $500,000 is pledged, the money will be placed in an airline travel bank for customers’ tickets for flights from Moses Lake or connected with SkyWest partners United Airlines or the Star Alliance, which has access to international flights.

The first leg of travel must be with United or United Express/SkyWest, he said.

Customers would receive airline travel bank cards, which function like checking debit cards.

The funds are controlled by the EDC and the master account at the bank is in the EDC’s name, he said.

If the program is terminated early, the residual funds are returned to the airline travel bank partners (customers), he said.

Boggs said SkyWest has the right sized aircraft for the market and access to United’s 3,175 daily departures system-wide and 44 online daily departures to 85 nonstop markets.

He said the Port of Moses Lake, the EDC and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce really want the carrier to succeed in Grant County.

Air service is important to the area because it’s part of the economic foundation of the community, he noted.

“A lot of business doesn’t take place if you don’t have air service,” Boggs said.

In addition to port officials and EDC representatives, Peggy Hendren, center director for the Columbia Basin Job Corps, and Sandi Lybbert of Eka Chemical attended the 9 a.m. meeting on Tuesday.

Destination points mentioned included Seattle, Chicago/Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, D.C.

Lybbert said Eka Chemical uses a central expense reporting system and deviating from it will create some problems. She said the any decisions would be made by company officials in Europe.

Boggs said they have encountered the issue with other companies and were able to overcome most concerns.

Lybbert also talked about Eka’s employees flying home from the east coast and sitting in a Seattle airport until 9 p.m. waiting for a flight to Moses Lake.

“No one can do that, no business person is going to do that,” she said. “That’s the whole  point of getting home.”

Boggs said they’ll have to take a look at the issue.

The airline will be tuned into how schedules work, he added.

Time is critical, so people need to return their pledge forms and complete future forms quickly, he urged.

After the meeting, Boggs said they’re at the point where gathering pledges is the last thing to do to secure service.

It’s a certainty the opportunity will go away if the support isn’t shown, he said.

For more information, contact Brewer at 509-7646579, Craig Baldwin with the Port of Moses Lake at 509-762-5363 or Boggs and consultant Bruce Tecklenburg at 541-689-9997.

For more information about meeting dates, visit www.grantedc.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Community support needed to establish air service to Moses Lake with two daily flights to and from SeaTac.”