City will offer ground support equipment to two more carriers
Agreement is month to month
Commercial passenger flights to and from Santa Fe Municipal Airport are expected to double by the end of the year after the City Council voted Tuesday night on a strategy to work with two major carriers.
People are already showing interest in flights to be offered in mid-December by American Eagle airline, spokesman Tim Wagner said Tuesday. The airline, a sister company to American Airlines, has been selling tickets for flights to Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles for a few months, and some of the 50-passenger flights are already booked into the double digits, Wagner said.
Delta Air Lines has also been advertising new Santa Fe flights to Salt Lake City and Los Angeles since this summer, but representatives were not available for comment Tuesday.
Bringing the major carriers to Santa Fe has long been a city goal, said Airport Director Jim Montman, and when the city received its federal certification in June that allows regional jets to operate from the facility.
The council's Tuesday vote means Montman will now write letters of intent to both airlines that lay out the city's willingness to enter into a formal contract. They will include promises to provide up to $400,000 worth of ground support equipment that will belong to the city, but be used by the airlines. Airlines will also get free rent at the terminal for a year and landing fees will be waived for the same time limit.
When American and then Delta asked the city for the so-called "preconditions" including equipment, some city councilors balked. They changed their tune partly when state grants emerged to cover half of the needed funds, which Montman said are based on the maximum amount that might be needed and pay for items including minor terminal renovations to make room for new ticket counters and terminal furniture.
The rest of the money for the preconditions will be borrowed from a cash reserve and paid back through airport fees such as fuel and rental-car surcharges. Montman said the effects of the flights will ripple through the economy, beginning with an expected tripling of car rentals, for example.
If both airlines begin service, the airport will have no more capacity for additional airlines because of limited space for terminals and security screening. It brings to four the number of airlines operating there. Great Lakes and New Mexico Airlines are already flying commercial turbo-propellor planes and will continue to do so.
Montman noted the new service will increase daily flights from commercial carriers from five to a maximum of 10 per day, but those flights are a small part of the number of flights that take off and land at the airport every day.
Commercial flights account for 4 percent of airport operations today and will account for about 8 percent of operations when the service begins in December. Before a dramatic shift in the airline industry after Sept. 11, 2001, as many as 15 small commercial flights were leaving and arriving at the airport, he said.
Councilor Patti Bushee cast the sole vote against the proposal, which passed 6-1. Bushee said she did not want to set a precedent of subsidizing airlines. Councilor Karen Heldmeyer, who previously said she was not in favor of the idea, voted for the proposal, noting it seems more equitable now than when it appeared to apply only to American Airlines.
While agreements for service will be month to month, Montman said, it's unlikely that either airline will change its intent to serve Santa Fe over the long term. If they do bail for any reason, however, Montman said other airlines have already indicated they are interested in coming to the airport.
Both airlines plan to give away free flight tickets as "gate prizes" during the Sept. 22 air show at the airport.
Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or [email protected]
