RIC Denies $50 Million in Incentives to Skybus / Top Official Says No Such Offer Has Been Extended to Land Operational Base

Richmond International Airport isn’t trying to lure Skybus Airlines Inc. with $50 million in incentives to choose the airport for its second operational base, the top airport official said.

Airport representatives have been talking to Skybus about increasing service and the possibility of creating a base, or hub, here.

Skybus has narrowed its choices to the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C., and Richmond, said the Winston-Salem Alliance, an economic-development group.

The group sent a letter to that area’s tourism authority saying Richmond and the state of Virginia “have been very aggressive in the recruitment of Skybus,” with combined financial assistance of $50 million over 10 years.

But Jon Mathiasen, president and chief executive officer of the Capital Region Airport Commission, which operates the Richmond airport, said no such financial offer has been made.

“There is no $50 million,” Mathiasen said yesterday. “I don’t know where that came from.”

Skybus, based in Columbus, Ohio, said last month that it was considering six cities for its second base, where it could offer as many as 22 daily flights.

The airline, which started nonstop service once a day between Columbus to Richmond during May, has projected that more than 400 jobs would be created with a hub.

A decision could be made as early as the end of the month.

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority has offered airlines an incentive for new flights. That could mean Skybus would be eligible for reimbursements that would be competitive with what the alliance believes is Richmond’s offer.

Troy Bell, the marketing and air-service development director for the Richmond airport, said that marketing incentives have been provided to seven of the nine airlines serving the airport for starting flights to new destinations. The marketing support to AirTran, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest and Skybus came from airport funds.

AirTran, JetBlue and Skybus also received funding from a federal grant.

Skybus is expected to add another daily flight from Richmond to Columbus around the end of this year or early in 2008, Mathiasen said. Skybus said it didn’t have any immediate plans to add such a flight.

— Staff writers Gregory J. Gilligan and Peter Bacque and The Winston-Salem Journal contributed to this report.

Originally published by Staff and Wire Reports.

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