"Running an airport is a tough job"

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Commentary
Running an airport is a tough job
By Alan Julian
The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press


Bob Working and his cohorts at Evansville Regional Airport deserve an
award for perseverance. It may turn out to be the character trait
they'll need most in the future. 

Working and other local airport officials have been trying to
re-establish intra-state flights between Evansville and Indianapolis for
the past couple of years. 

So far, they don't have a lot to show for their efforts, but they aren't
giving up. 

The in-state flights were dropped about three years ago. At the time,
airlines were cutting out their least profitable flights all across the
nation when air travel slowed to a trickle after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. 

The Evansville-to-Indianapolis flights didn't attract enough passengers
on a consistent basis, so the flights were dropped. 

Local airport officials, along with the Chamber of Commerce, have been
looking for ways to get the flights restored ever since. 

The latest effort has involved selling advance tickets to prospective
travelers in hopes of raising money to help an airline resume the
flights. 

Airport officials in South Bend joined the effort. But together the two
airports have been able to sell only about $113,400 worth of advance
tickets. 

Meanwhile, the two airports have pledged to earmark $500,000 from their
own budgets to help subsidize in-state flights. They've also been
attempting to get a $1 million federal grant to provide an additional
subsidy. 

The federal grant application has been turned down twice, but Working
says another application is being prepared. If it's approved, he says,
flights could begin as soon as November. 

The efforts are noble, and local airport officials should be commended
for trying to doing all they can to improve service. 

But the problems facing small airports are daunting. The U.S. airline
industry is in dire straits, and many of the nation's largest airlines
are facing extinction. 

The airlines have long used smaller airports, such as Evansville's, to
generate marginal increases in passenger traffic to their larger hubs.
But the cost of providing service to this relatively small group of
passengers has been great. 

For years, these high costs have been subsidized by passengers at the
larger hubs. Now that airlines are facing such big financial problems,
they're naturally looking for ways to cut costs. 

Some airline experts say the whole concept of a hub-and-spoke airline
system, such as we currently have, is being reconsidered by the airline
industry. 

If that happens, Evansville airport officials will need all the
perseverance they can muster to keep a respectable level of airline
service here.


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