Lewiston Airport Board Approves United Leases

Sep. 29—The Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport's new United Airlines service will debut at 9:36 p.m. Tuesday with the arrival of a flight from Denver.

The next day, a flight bound for Denver will leave Lewiston at 5:41 a.m., marking the beginning of a schedule that will include the daily early morning departure and evening arrival.

As of last week, more than 30 passengers had already booked seats on the first flight, Chairman Gary Peters said at a Tuesday meeting of the airport authority board.

"(That's) incredible for an inaugural (flight on a 50-passenger aircraft)," Peters said. "Remember that's coming one way; that's people that haven't left Lewiston. That's people already using the service just to get to Lewiston. That's real positive."

The updates were provided at the meeting where board members heard a report about the airport's continuing Delta service to Salt Lake City operated by Skywest, the same carrier handling the Denver-United service, and approved a lease with United for its use of the airport.

Delta's 4 p.m. Salt Lake City departure and 11 p.m. arrival are being dropped in October, said airport Director Michael Isaacs, leaving two daily departures and arrivals.

The departures will be at 6:25 a.m. and 12:20 p.m., and the arrivals will be at 11:40 a.m. and 6:08 p.m.

"This is a seasonal change that's happened for the last four or five years," Isaacs said. "So it's nothing unusual, but it also coincides with United's inaugural flight, so that's probably why we have 30 people on our first flight, is because the late flight from ( Salt Lake City) is no longer there."

Other factors are playing a role too, he said, such as a nationwide reduction in the number of people flying because of COVID-19 after volumes were well beyond pre-pandemic levels a couple months ago.

"We're seeing a little downturn here, but not nearly as much as our national average," he said.

United will be using the airport on terms similar to Delta, after the airport board approved a lease at Tuesday's meeting that's expected to generate about $100,000 per year in revenue.

United will pay $7,768 a year for 650 square feet of exclusive space for offices and a ticket counter as well as $6,191 for 3,500 square feet of shared space, including the boarding area and luggage claim.

Landing fees are $1.10 per 1,000 pounds of maximum allowable gross landing weight.

The agreement can be renewed annually, with lease rates for the airport space rising 2 percent a year. The one-year term with the option to renew annually is different from Delta's, which is a five-year agreement, Isaacs said.

That lease is separate from a three-year deal that gives United $4 million in incentives. Nez Perce County, which owns the airport with the city of Leiwston, is providing a first-year payment of $1.75 million from its $7.8 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act. The airport will pay $1.25 million in the second year and $1 million in the third year, according to the agreement.

The board meeting was a small part of the activity happening this week at the airport. Its primary runway is temporarily closed from Monday through 10 a.m. Friday for a $4 million taxiway upgrade covered by the Federal Aviation Administration, a project not connected with recruiting United.

The primary runway is the one used by commercial passenger flights, which resume with the arrival of a Salt Lake City flight at 11:40 a.m. Friday.

"They're ahead of schedule for this critical phase," Isaacs said. "The whole project also is on schedule."

Cargo planes and other aircraft are continuing to use the airport's secondary runway.

In the airport terminal, an expansion of the waiting area behind security on the second floor is expected to be complete by the end of the week. Bathrooms on the second floor accessible from the addition have already been upgraded, and repairs such as replacing sinks are being done this week in the main floor men's restrooms.

"There has been a lot of coordinating taking place," Peters said.

Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.

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