"Yuma Airport sees more cargo, flyers despite costly fares"

Monday, September 27, 2004

Airport sees more cargo, flyers despite costly fares
BY JONATHAN ATHENS
The Yuma (AZ) Sun


More people are taking to the friendly skies out of Yuma International
Airport these days, and for the third consecutive year commerce at the
airport is on the rise in terms of passengers, cargo and corporate travel,
airport officials said.

There's one other aspect of air travel out of Yuma that remains in the
stratosphere - the price of round-trip and one-way fares from Yuma to
Phoenix.

Two carriers operate out of Yuma airport. Mesa Airlines operates America
West Express to Phoenix to connect wth America West Airlines; Sky West
operates United Express to Los Angeles to connect with United Airlines.

David Gaines, airport manager, said he's fought for years but to no avail to
get those fares lowered. He added that the airline companies are engaging in
monopolistic practices because they don't want travelers to jump carriers.

"The costs are high because the market the major airlines are after are the
through traffic," Gaines said. "They don't want a lower fare between the
regional airport and the hub airport where you could get on the competitor's
airline."

Robin Urbanski, spokeswoman for United Airlines, said that Gaines' comments
"are not accurate and are not true."

She said fares are high because "there isn't enough demand to go from
Phoenix and Yuma" and higher fares on flights to smaller communities is
common throughout the United States.

Urbanski said United Airlines is a "hub and spoke carrier" and so flights to
Yuma from Phoenix on United Express are not direct flights and instead have
stop overs in Los Angeles.

"For the size of the plane, there isn't enough demand to go between Phoenix
and Yuma," she said. "Therefore, we go to Los Angeles to pick up more
passengers."

Competition, Urbanski went on to say, "is always good because it brings
ticket fares down and customers win," Urbanski said.

A spokesman for Sky West did not return calls for comment.

Gaines said airline companies, still reeling from the after shocks of the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that clobbered the travel industry, offer
more competitive fares to Yuma for those remaining on the same carrier and
flying through.

"If you're ticketing on America West, your Yuma leg is going to be $40 to
$50, but if you are going to Phoenix for business on a local round-trip,
they raise the rates," Gaines said.

Gaines said the high fares is costing the airport passengers who are opting
to rent a car and drive from Yuma to Phoenix or vice versa.

"That's where our leakage has gone. Our passengers are going to surface
transportation. This is typical of the system. They (airline companies)
completely and totally control the market," Gaines said.

Sky high round-trip rates prompted Phoenix-based WDP Partners to charter a
plane for weekly trips to Yuma, said Lavonne Dorrneweerd, executive
assistant with the company that is developing Yuma Palms Shopping Center.

"When we did the calculations, it was $476 per ticket round-trip per person"
to fly commercial, Dorrneweerd said.

WDP Partners provides its employees and those contracted to work on Yuma
Palms with round-trip chartered flights, she said.

"It's just so much more beneficial time-wise and it's cost-effective," she
said, adding that the twin engine aircraft the company charters can carry up
to seven passengers.

According to the Yuma County Airport Authority's annual report, "total
passenger traffic at Yuma was up by 4.4 percent in 2003 over 2002."

In raw numbers, an estimated 52,000 to 53,000 passengers each year are
flying out of Yuma airport, Gaines said.

AIRFARES

A NONSTOP ROUND-TRIP FLIGHT LEAVING OCT. 27 GOING FROM YUMA TO PHOENIX AND
RETURNING THE NEXT DAY STARTS AT $254 ON AMERICA WEST EXPRESS.

A FLIGHT ON UNITED EXPRESS ON THE SAME DATES BUT WITH STOP OVERS STARTS AT
$481 AND CAN GO AS HIGH AS $504.

Source: expedia.com


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