Air-service hopes nosedive in Sandpoint

Sandpoint’s dreams of commercial air service were dashed last week, when McCall Aviation announced it would cease flights to Boise and Seattle’s Boeing Field on Oct. 15.

The fledgling air service was barely three months old.

Two weeks earlier, Big Sky Airlines announced that it would stop flying from Spokane to Olympia, citing $50,000 per month losses on the route.

Both announcements underscore a painful truth for small and midsize cities: Regular air service is a dream for many, but reality for few.

“Overall, small communities are losing air service,” said Mike Boyd, president of The Boyd Group, a Colorado-based consulting firm. “The dynamics in the airline industry say it just doesn’t happen anymore.”

Boyd points to the demise of turboprop planes as a primary factor. Twenty years ago, turboprops were king of commuter flights, he said. “People would get on a little 19-seat plane that cost $3 million … you saw a lot of those planes.”

New federal security and operating regulations made the planes less economical to operate, Boyd said. The higher costs – spread over a small number of seats – prompted many airlines to pull back. Now, companies are looking at whether routes will generate enough traffic to fill $20 million, 50-seat jets, he said.

In addition, airlines want commuter routes to ultimately generate longer, more profitable trips, Boyd said.

Bucking the trends, the Lewiston Airport received a federal grant for flights to Salt Lake City starting next year. Boyd helped the Port of Lewiston secure the grant. He thinks the route will become self-sustaining, because passengers will be able to connect to some 40-odd Delta destinations at the Salt Lake City airport.

The lack of connections was a flaw in both the Sandpoint and Spokane-to-Olympia routes, according to Boyd. All three destinations were dead ends.

“Independent commuter service to Boise is a dumb idea to work with,” he said bluntly. “We could have told you up front that it wouldn’t have worked. … Air service, in most cases, has to be to a connecting hub, on a carrier for a major airline.”

Puddle-jumping is only one piece of the revenue, Boyd said. Delta and other airlines want commuter flights to be feeder flights as well. If Lewiston generates enough passengers with final destinations in New York, London or Miami, the route will be a money generator for Delta, Boyd said.

The Sandpoint and Spokane-to-Olympia flights also struggled with proximity to other major airports.

In late 2001, Big Sky gambled that government travel would support a direct flight from Spokane to Olympia. But the three daily round trips never generated enough passengers.

Craig Denney, Big Sky’s executive vice president, still thinks the south Puget Sound region has potential.

However, “we knew to be successful that we would have to get people to change their habits,” he said. “In this case, we were not successful.”

The Olympia airport lies 60 miles south of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. After Big Sky launched its service at $76 for a one-way ticket to Olympia, its competitors – Horizon, Southwest and Alaska – dropped Sea-Tac fares to as low as $39 one way. People were willing to drive the extra miles through heavy traffic to get the savings, Denney said.

Sandpoint’s service also suffered from price competition.

Roundtrip tickets from Sandpoint to Boeing Field or Boise were about $262. Many locals were willing to drive the hour and 45 minutes into Spokane to buy cheaper fares, said Mark Sixel, a Eugene, Ore., consultant who worked with Sandpoint leaders on bringing regular air service to the city.

The Boise flight schedule also hamstrung the effort, Sixel said. “You couldn’t fly there and back in a day. You had to stay two nights for one day of meetings … You really had to support the service to make it work.”

The service was a trial run for the community, said Ron Nova, chairman of the Sandpoint Air Service Committee. Though it will end after four months, it did attract some devoted fans – himself included.

Nova, the general manager of Schweitzer Mountain Resort, flew to Seattle six times this summer for business and vacation. The McCall Air flight eliminated an 80-mile drive to Spokane. He didn’t have to get to the airport an hour early to catch the eight-passenger flight. It was so small, no security check-in was required.

“For convenience, you couldn’t beat it,” Nova said.