No Extra Flight for Butte

By Holly Michels, The Montana Standard, Butte

Apr. 16–Things aren’t looking good for a third Delta Air Lines flight into Bert Mooney Airport this summer.

Airport manager Rick Griffith said the airline didn’t include the flight — a supplemental trip added the last two summers — in its schedule this year.

“It’s something we need, but it was left off for some reason,” he said.

Last Thursday Griffith sent a letter to Delta, who this week announced a merger with Northwest Airlines, asking for reconsideration of the summer flight.

“I continue to keep putting my eggs in Delta’s basket, only to be let down,” he wrote.

Adding a third flight is warranted, Griffith said, because summer flights into Butte are nearly full.

In June, 81 percent of seats are occupied; in July the number jumps to 94 percent, or about 48 of 50 seats on each Delta flight. August planes are 86 percent full, according to airport data.

Griffith also wrote that festivals in July and August like the National Folk Festival, Fourth of July Freedom Festival, Evel Knievel Days and An Ri Ra Irish Festival bring 260,000 people to Butte.

“Delta’s summer schedule forces all the visitors to use other airports,” he said.

Delta added a summer flight two years ago after Bert Mooney sponsored a letter-writing campaign asking for the addition. The airline included the flight last year without a request.

In November a delegation from Butte traveled to Delta’s headquarters in Atlanta hoping to make the addition permanent.

“We went down and talked to them about adding it year-round and they were receptive to that,” Griffith said, “but they also wanted … money to guarantee service.” Revenue guarantees are common at other Montana airports, Griffith said. Guarantees are funds put up by local entities and governments to ensure an airline won’t lose money on new service.

Gallatin Field Airport in Bozeman provided Frontier Airlines with a revenue guarantee, put up by local businesses, this year that will compensate the airline for first-year losses on its new service to Bozeman.

Griffith said Bert Mooney already spent $500,000 trying to market Delta and its other carrier, Horizon Air, part of Alaska Airlines, through print and television ads.

Jim Smitham, executive director of the Butte Local Development Corp., said local business is hurt by losing the third flight.

“It is causing many of our frequent travelers to have to use airports outside of Butte in order to make connections, and that’s one thing we really want to work hard to prevent. We want to keep people in town,” he said.

The BLDC is part of a transportation board facilitated by the Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce that is exploring revenue guarantees.

“Butte has to become more aggressive in going after our air service,” he said. “We have to find a strategy and find a new way to attract new carriers and new service.” Griffith said he’s not sure what the recently announced merger means for Butte, but he isn’t optimistic.

“If we’re having this much trouble communicating with Delta now, I can’t imagine them being bigger and easier to communicate with,” he said. “I’m as frustrated as I’ve ever been with them and I just can’t estimate being less frustrated with a bigger Delta.” — Reporter Holly Michels may be reached via e-mail at holly.michels@lee.net

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Montana Standard, Butte

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