Will Springfield's Flights to D.C. Pay Off for United?

Nonstop jet service between Springfield and Washington could wind up costing nearly $1.4 million in taxpayer and business subsidies after it starts in April.

It could also cost nothing.

The key now is selling enough seats to turn a profit, airport officials said Thursday after announcing a startup date for the service.

"It's go-ing to take strong community support. It's a large commitment from the community that you usually don't see," said Frank Vala, chairman of the Springfield Airport Authority.

Airport commissioners unanimously approved a one-year contract at a special meeting Thursday following months of negotiations with United Airlines for United Express commuter service to Dulles International Airport.

Vala explained that the subsidies would be paid to United only if the service loses money.

"We may owe money. We may have sufficient passengers to not owe any money," he said.

The cost of tickets has not been determined, and the addition of nonstop service to Dulles on April 27 means the loss of one of five existing United Express flights to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Trans States Airlines, based in St. Louis, operates local United Express flights through a partnership with United Airlines.

Despite the strings attached, supporters of the $1.4 million incentive package said the effort was worth it to provide a connection not available at any other central Illinois airport.

"We now have a niche that no other central Illinois airport has," said Gary Plummer, president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

The Strategic Leadership Council of the chamber pledged up to $200,000 toward the cost of the service. The council is part of a Quantum Growth initiative announced in October to raise $4.3 million in pledges that would more than triple spending on economic development locally in the next five years.

Plummer said council members did raise a number of questions about the cost of the incentive package and whether Dulles is the ideal connection before approving the commitment at a meeting Thursday.

The airport authority has committed up to $800,000 toward the subsidies.

The package began to come together last summer after U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin helped land a $390,000 federal air-service grant for Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.

"Direct flights from Springfield to Dulles will add a new dimension to air travel in central Illinois," Durbin, a Democrat, said in a joint announcement with United.

Vala said later that if the service loses money, specific payments from each of the funds would be apportioned based on flight-use patterns. The contract also allows the airport to pull out of the agreement with 90 days' notice.

The Springfield airport has guaranteed similar subsidies to Big Sky Airlines, the Montana-based carrier that started service to Midway Airport in Chicago in December. Airport officials estimated the Big Sky incentives could cost $200,000 to $300,000 - if the service loses money.

Former airport executive director Eric Frankl, who continued to serve as a consultant on the United deal after leaving for a job in Ohio in November, said such incentives are the price of competition in an airline industry that still is recovering from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"There are communities that are paying more. Post 9/11, the airlines are very risk averse, and the only way we are going to get that service is for communities to share that risk," said Frankl, who was in Springfield for Thursday's announcement.

Even so, airport board member Dick Austin said he was prepared to vote against the United incentives as too expensive until the chamber group announced its commitment of $200,000.

"We needed some help from the community, and frankly, I wasn't sure we could get it," Austin said.

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