June 02--To cheers from a large crowd gathered in the terminal, a Delta airplane arrived at Yuma International Airport in mid-December 2007, heralding the airline's launch of direct flights between Yuma and Salt Lake City.
Despite the enthusiastic welcome and full or nearly full daily flights, the service was discontinued a short eight months later. The high cost of fuel coupled with the economic downturn had struck.
Airport director Craig Williams would really like to see Delta return to the market and bring back the service to Salt Lake City.
"That was such a good route," he said.
He has his challenges. Once a route is cut, it's hard to get it back, he said. And the economy is still struggling.
It doesn't help that the load factor -- the percentage of people either flying in to or out of Yuma out of the total capacity of the fights -- was a disappointing 57 percent last year.
But Williams remains hopeful that the Salt Lake City route can be restored or, failing that, recruit a third carrier to the Yuma market for some other new route. Denver might be one such option.
Currently, SkyWest provides commuter service to Los Angeles for connecting flights with United while US Airways Expressway provides service to Phoenix for connecting flights with US Airways (soon to merge with American Airlines) and other major airlines that fly out of Sky Harbor Airport.
To help fuel the efforts to recruit a third carrier is a $400,000 grant the airport received from the Small Community Air Service Development Program. The grant program through the U.S. Department of Transportation is designed to help small communities address air service and airfare issues.
The only thing is, the three-year grant is due to expire at the end of this year.
Before that happens, the airport has been trying to broaden the scope of the grant or at least to obtain an extension, Williams said. "I hope we can hang on a little longer, the economy improves and we get Salt Lake City back."
Williams noted that Yuma International Airport actually had weathered the downtown "pretty well" until last year, when the load factor dropped. That could partly be the result of something good: US Airways Express upgraded its service last year from the Dash 8 to the larger regional jet, but it didn't adjust the number of flights for a while so the capacity was increased, spreading passenger loads a little thinner.
The good news is that the airport's passenger loads are holding steady for this year and even showing some improvement, Williams said. For the first four months of 2013, a total of 28,735 air travelers have departed from or arrived at Yuma International Airport, vs. 28,268 during the same time last year.
"At this point in the year, we're not bad," Williams said. And it should get better once the federal government gets past sequestration and restores government travel.
In the meantime, he reminded the community that if it wants to not only keep the air service it has but see it expand, local residents need to "fly Yuma."
Fares may be cheaper to drive to Phoenix to catch a flight, he said. But factor in the cost of gas, perhaps a hotel room if you have an early morning flight and airport parking and that savings shrinks. Factor in the time and wear and tear of the three-hour drive to Phoenix to catch a flight, then the return drive to Yuma at the end of your trip and it ceases to be cost-effective to drive to Phoenix, Williams said.
"The last thing I want to do at the end of a trip is drive back to Yuma," he said. "Do yourself a favor and fly from Yuma. When I'm traveling, I want to take care of myself."
Williams acknowledged that flying isn't the quality experience it was in the past when people dressed up and were treated well.
Today, he said, passengers feel "nickeled and dimed" from the moment they enter an airport, then there's the "cold and unfeeling security. It's gone from first class to how can we save that last penny."
He continued: "We need to improve the travel experience. The travel industry needs to treat passengers as valued. Being polite doesn't cost anything and it costs just a little more to treat people as special."
But at least Yuma still has two carriers to major airports, observed Gen Grosse, airport corporate account manager. At a recent airport conference, she heard about how other small airports are suffering and perhaps have lost their air service.
One thing that has helped Yuma International Airport weather the downturn, Williams believes, is that it has diversified with its development of the Defense Contractor Complex. This has provided revenue to continue to maintain the airport and make improvements that benefit the flying public, general aviation and other users.
For example, the airport recently completed a project to relocate and expand the security screening area and secured waiting room.
And as an added touch, Yuma Visitors Bureau now has volunteers in the terminal on Wednesdays and Sundays to greet arriving passengers, direct them to ground transportation, answer that big question about what there is to do in Yuma and in general make them feel welcome.
"We want to let them know we appreciate them," Grosse said.
Joyce Lobeck can be reached at [email protected] or 539-6853.
Copyright 2013 - The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.
