Officials Weigh Airline Options for Butte
By Nick Gevock, The Montana Standard, Butte
May 29–Local officials are weighing the options to try to keep Horizon Airlines from pulling out of Butte.
The company announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing its twice-a-day flights into Bert Mooney Airport from Seattle on Aug. 24.
The news is a blow to Butte travelers because it leaves the city without air service to Seattle.
Airport manager Rick Griffiths said the company’s decision seems pretty firm. Yet local officials met Wednesday to consider incentives to try to keep the company here.
“As of right now we haven’t received any signals that they’re interested in staying in the market,” he told The Montana Standard. “We’d like the opportunity to sit down with them as early as next week and try to see if there is something we can do to make it more attractive for them to be in the Butte market.” The options might be pretty limited.
Horizon’s move comes amid abysmal economic times for the airline industry. Skyrocketing fuel prices have pushed a handful of carriers out of business and forced others to cut back on air service.
That’s especially the case to smaller markets such as Butte. In addition, airlines are raising their fares and instituting extra fees, such as a baggage fee for all checked luggage.
Dan Russo, a Horizon spokesman, said Wednesday the company is always willing to listen to local officials. However, the Seattle-Butte flight has lost money for well over a year.
“We’ve been in the market since 1989 and have tried a number of different ways to serve the market,” he said. “We did a restructuring of our price structure last fall and it involved some fairly substantial reductions in our fares and that didn’t result in making a profit in Butte.” Fuel prices have made it difficult to make a profit on smaller markets, he added. In addition, the Butte service has always been expensive because the airplane touched down in Butte before continuing on to Bozeman and then returning to Seattle.
That meant the flight had to pay a lot of ground fees, Russo said. The demand for the service simply wasn’t there, however.
“We’ve had Butte sort of tied to Bozeman, but it’s not carrying enough passengers to make it worth doing that,” he said. “We like to serve markets that will stand on their own.” A committee of local government and airport officials met Wednesday to discuss ways to try to keep Horizon here. That group was supposed to consider how to use a federal grant that aims to help out smaller air service markets improve service.
Russo last week put out a call for local business owners and residents to write in support of the federal grant to try to attract a third SkyWest Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Butte. Russo said the committee discussed whether that money could be sued to subsidize Horizon service to keep it here, but added with the application looming next week it’s too late to change the grant application.
“I don’t think we can use that money, just because we’re not far enough in negotiations with Horizon,” he said.
However, the committee might consider other funding sources for the subsidy, including using state Hard Rock Mining Trust Reserve Fund, economic development dollars or private funds.
Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Paul Babb said Wednesday during a candidates’ debate that he will work hard to try to keep Horizon service to Butte. He pledged to work with Montana’s congressional delegation to come up with incentives for the company.
“It’s going to take some political muscle to salvage whatever we can with Horizon Air,” he said.
Reporter Nick Gevock may be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com.
—–
To see more of The Montana Standard, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mtstandard.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Montana Standard, Butte
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
NASDAQ-NMS:SKYW,