Airport Official Asking Cities to Offer Incentives

By Holli L. Estridge, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas

Jul. 24–As Easterwood Airport’s airlines scrutinize costs, an airport official is asking local governments about the possibility of offering incentives.

The College Station airport’s director of aviation, John Happ, told the Bryan City Council on Tuesday that American Eagle had asked about financial assistance.

“We’ve fared well as far as seats are concerned,” Happ told City Council members. “What we didn’t get was the late night-arrival flight.”

In June, American Eagle said it would expand capacity at Easterwood despite a corporate announcement of service cuts nationwide. The airline plans to phase out its three 34-seat SAAB turbo-prop aircraft and replace them with three 50-passenger jets — a shift from previous plans to cut one flight and bring in two 66-passenger ATR turbo-prop aircraft.

Increased capacity at Easterwood could mean the airport has to increase security, moving from a Category 4 designation under the Transportation Security Administration to a higher Category 3. The improvements, which could include replacing a game fence covering half the property with a security fence, could cost the airport from $200,000 to more than $1 million.

Happ said the airport didn’t know what the TSA would require for the security upgrade.

American Eagle has also published a new fall flight schedule — pushing the airline’s earliest flight from Easterwood to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport back three hours, to 10:50 a.m. The latest flight back from Dallas would depart at 3:24 p.m.

Though the schedule doesn’t cut any flights — the airline will still run three to and from Dallas — it will make connections at the international airport trickier for area passengers.

The new early flight would not get passengers to Dallas in time to board many overseas-bound flights, and some connecting passengers from Dallas may miss American Eagle’s latest plane back to Easterwood.

Continental Airlines is also making changes, Happ said.

Continental plans to replace its one regional jet with an SAAB turbo-prop aircraft. After the change, Continental would have eight SAABs, offering 10 fewer seats than it now provides, but the same number of flights.

Happ told council members that the loss of the regional jet means all of Continental’s flights would be weight-restricted. The jet is not restricted in the passengers and luggage it can carry.

Representatives of the two airlines couldn’t be reached late Wednesday afternoon to comment.

Happ said the airport budget doesn’t have room for financial incentives — which would have to be offered to both airlines.

Bryan City Council member Jason Bienski said he had heard that the flight schedule was a problem.

“We’ve got to have the right flights, and the ticket prices have to be competitive,” he said.

But overall, Bienski said, if more people used the airport, the council wouldn’t be discussing the issue.

American Eagle shuttled an estimated 34,000 Easterwood passengers to and from Dallas/Fort Worth last year. Continental Airlines — which offers Easterwood service to and from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston — flew between 51,500 and 54,000 College Station passengers last year, Easterwood officials said.

Traffic on Continental’s Easterwood flights increased by almost 300 passengers in April, compared with the same month last year, according to Easterwood statistics. But in other months, the airline’s traffic counts have fluctuated when compared to year-ago figures.

While Happ didn’t have a specific proposal for incentives, he told the council that Lubbock had placed $3 million in escrow for Southwest Airlines as an incentive.

“[American Eagle is] asking if there’s anything we can do to help subsidize and keep their costs down,” he said. “They need to get through the first of the year.”

Happ said he had also briefed the academic program committee at Texas A&M University and hoped to soon speak at College Station City Council and Brazos County Commissioners Court meetings.

–Holli L. Estridge’s e-mail address is holli.estridge@theeagle.com.

—–

To see more of The Eagle or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.theeagle.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas

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.

Stockholm:SAAB-B, NYSE:CAL, NYSE:LUV,