EDITORIAL: The Usual Suspects: Air service panel members have no choice but produce a workable MB airport plan

Jun. 17--On Opinion Blog last week, one writer asked a timely question: Why are the "same old self-interested personalities" leading the new public-private effort to improve Myrtle Beach air service?

Some readers no doubt had the same reaction upon learning the identities of the folks serving on the ad hoc airport committee, which met for the first time last week. We believe that the committee members can get results. But the committee roster does invite skepticism.

Horry County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland and Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes pulled the committee together in the wake of the collapse this month of the county's terminal project at Myrtle Beach International Airport. Among the likely committee members are a host of "usual suspects": City Councilmen Phil Render and Mike Chestnut; County Councilmen Howard Barnard, Mike Ryan, Brent Schulz and Marion Foxworth; Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce; Bill McKown, chairman of the county's Airport Advisory Board; and Scott Brandon, president of Brandon Advertising.

These are good people all, but let's face it: With a few exceptions, they're the same people who have failed to pull together on behalf of improved air service in the past. The inadequacy of the airport as currently constituted is not a new problem.

So why are we hopeful that these "usual suspects" will produce an air-service plan that actually works?

Answer: The committee members know they must produce a workable plan.

The Myrtle Beach representatives allowed an appointive city board to derail the terminal project and did nothing to stop it. They know the onus is on them to come up with a suitable alternative for adding gates to the woefully inadequate east-side terminal, at reasonable cost -- and to make certain that said plan gets a city building permit.

The county people know that their own missteps in moving the terminal plan from concept to blueprints helped cause its rejection by the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board. They know that tourism leaders are right to worry that airport costs for airlines are too high, and that this inhibits their efforts to attract new flights to Myrtle Beach. They know that the new plan, which ultimately will be their responsibility, must transcend these problems.

Tourism establishment leaders, whom Dean represents, know the onus is on them to show how the county might reduce costs for airlines and still generate airline fee revenue sufficient to financing a new terminal-expansion project. They know they need to come up with a private marketing plan for the airport that helps the county ink new-flight deals with airlines willing to provide direct service to distant cities.

Our only concern about the ad hoc committee is that it needs more "usual suspects" from the private side. Why no representation from Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association? Why not include some top hoteliers, golf group executives and development executives in the group? To exclude these good people is to risk losing their buy-in to any air-service plan the committee develops.

If Gilland and Rhodes fail to expand the private side of the panel, they could undermine their own good work. If they do, their chances of success will be all but guaranteed.

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