Commission Agrees to Subsidize Delta Flight
By Christian Giggenbach, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
Jul. 1–LEWISBURG — The Greenbrier County Commission voted unanimously Monday to pledge up to $175,000 to subsidize a Delta Airlines flight which lands at Greenbrier Valley Airport.
Currently, the Delta flight, which originates from Atlanta, is the sole commercial flight landing at Lewisburg. The airport’s other commercial airline, U.S. Airways Express, pulled out of its contract last month. Its replacement, Continental Airlines, is not expected to begin air service until Sept. 3.
Last Friday, Greenbrier resort officials, in a meeting with several county organizations, said Delta Airlines had invoked the “escalator clause” in its contract with the hotel that allowed it to ask for more money if fuel costs rose more than 10 percent.
Jeff Booth, the resort’s director of administration, marketing and sales, said the Delta contract was signed last February and included a subsidy of $4,200 per flight with the total amount not to exceed $300,000 for the May through October season. However, those numbers have increased to $5,500 per flight with the total not to exceed $400,000 after Delta asked for more money.
The contract states Delta gets paid for empty airline seats up to the amount of the guaranteed minimum.
Booth and two other Greenbrier resort officials said budget cutbacks resulted in only $175,000 being budgeted for the Atlanta flight and without $225,000 in funding from other organizations, the resort would not renegotiate its Delta contract.
County commissioners Lowell Rose, Brad Tuckwiller and Betty Crookshanks voted in favor of committing $175,000 of the county’s hotel/motel taxes to subsidize the Delta flight. Last year, the Legislature changed the law to allow county commissions to subsidize flights with bed tax funds.
“The Greenbrier is a major part of this county and it’s a major concern of mine to protect this airport,” commission president Lowell Rose said Monday. “The flight benefits the whole county, but I think The Greenbrier needs to shoulder the major portion of it.”
If the once-a-week Delta flight were canceled, Rose said, the airport could possibly lose millions of dollars in federal funding for improvements and its aviation tower.
“The subsidy does not have to be paid until after the end of the year when all of the passengers are counted and then we can see how much of that $175,000 is needed to subsidize the flight,” Rose said. “Then we can cut that check directly to Delta.”
Tuckwiller, who has been a member of The Greenbrier resort golf club for 17 years, said a broader issue needs to be looked at closer.
“This is merely the Band-Aid. Something needs to be changed in the long run. We need to be doing something that’s directly focused on the airport and not this little circumvention subsidy to Delta,” Tuckwiller said. “We need to focus on the Greenbrier Valley airport and the CVB and what the players can do to maintain their flights and their emplanements. We’ve done it in a screwball way in the last six or seven years.”
Crookshanks voted for the measure, but also expressed caution to her fellow commissioners that the ongoing labor dispute between the union and The Greenbrier has not been settled. The county receives half of the 3 percent bed tax placed on the resort, and the CVB receives the other half. Last week, CVB officials removed a $125,000 line item budget normally reserved for subsidizing flights into Lewisburg.
“With the (labor problems) at The Greenbrier, our hotel/motel tax will be down next year compared to what it has been in the past, because many of the conference groups are deciding now when they will be meeting for next year.”
The actual Greenbrier/Delta contract was not given to the commission for review prior to their discussion, but Rose said that should be taken care of before any money is paid for the Delta flight.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
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