Travelers Beating I-15 Traffic With Short-Hop Airline Flights Between Las Vegas and Southern California

March 3, 2004

Travelers Beating I-15 Traffic With Short-Hop Airline
Flights
By The Associated Press


LAS VEGAS - Travelers have begun beating
bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 15 between Las
Vegas and Southern California by using short-hop
airline service to airports in the Los Angeles
metropolitan area.


Sacramento, Calif.-based Valley Air Express started
five weekly round trips in October between Henderson
Executive Airport and the Southern California
Logistics Airport in Victorville, Calif.


``If you're driving from anywhere in L.A. County or
down near San Bernardino or Riverside counties, it's a
five- or six-hour trip,'' said Cory Robin, company
chief operations officer. ``The drive is terrible, and
it's going to be terrible for the next five years
while they're working on the highways.''


A sixth round trip was added about a month ago, and on
April 8, the company is set to begin 10 more weekly
round trips linking Henderson with another Southern
California destination: Riverside Airport. 


Valley Air's owners previously focused on charter
flights for executives in Northern California.


Robin said ongoing congestion along I-15 created a new
opportunity to link Las Vegas with an area that
supplied about 32 percent of the 35.5 million visitors
to Las Vegas last year.


Valley Air lets passengers make the trip in as little
as 90 minutes, using small airports where security
measures aren't as cumbersome as those at McCarran
International Airport, Robin said. Tickets cost $49 to
$99 each way, plus taxes and airport fees.


A January report by Nevada highway lobbyist Tom
Skancke said work on several road projects between Las
Vegas and Victorville isn't scheduled to wrap up until
summer 2007.


Skancke said more construction is to come, including
likely development of a planned $1.4 billion road
connecting Los Angeles-area drivers to I-15 by way of
Palmdale, Calif.


Robin said his company hopes to build upon its modest
schedule catering largely to weekend leisure
travelers.


So far, Valley Air is profitable, thanks in part to
the $400,000 in annual subsidies from the city of
Victorville, Robin said. Adding Riverside will let it
carry approximately 11,000 passengers per quarter, he
added.


Valley Air's operations are limited to Friday through
Sunday, using a nine-seat Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
turboprop aircraft. A second plane could be added this
year, and Robin said more and larger aircraft will be
ordered when demand improves.


He said the company is eyeing links between Henderson
and San Diego, Santa Maria and Catalina Island, off
the Southern California coast, as well as one or more
airports in Mexico.


Larger carriers have also stepped up efforts to lure
more business between Las Vegas and Southern
California.


In December, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and
America West of Tempe, Ariz., combined to operate
about 60 daily departures from McCarran to five
Southern California airports from San Diego to Santa
Barbara. In December 2002, those carriers operated 56
local daily departures to the same markets.


America West Vice President Ron Cole said Monday that
his company has increased its service between Las
Vegas and six Southern California airports by 41
percent over the past 24 months.


About 45 percent of Las Vegas visitors traveled to the
city by air last year, according to the Las Vegas
Convention and Visitors Authority. 

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