"Colorado airport feeling effects of economic downturn"

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Airport feeling effects of economic downturn 
By Lisa Huynh
The Montrose (CO) Daily Press
 

MONTROSE - Booked flights into Montrose Regional Airport are down 8 percent
compared to the same time last year, based on advanced reports. Officials
said the drop in activity reflects the nation's overall economic state and
fare competition with Grand Junction.

The neighboring Western Colorado airport has gotten more flights and
additional carriers, which is helping it keep fares lower than Montrose,
said Scott Stewart, director of air service for the Telluride Montrose
Regional Air Organization (TMRAO).

Most carriers in the country, not just in Montrose, are doubling and
tripling fares, Stewart said. 
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The good news is the airport did well the past winter, considering the sharp
increase in fuel prices, he said. "Based on how full the flights were, we
did very well in that tough environment. The problem is the environment is
even tougher now."

As recently as Thursday, national carriers took steps toward downsizing
their businesses. Continental Airlines announced that starting in September
it will cut 3,000 jobs, or 6.7 percent of its staff, and ground 67 planes
because of high fuel prices, according to several national published
reports. United Airlines said it would discontinue Ted Airlines, it's fleet
of 56 Airbus 320s; remove 100 aircraft from its fleet and layoff up to 1,600
employees.

In a time when small airports across the nation are losing their service
because of these cutbacks, Stewart said TMRAO is putting plans in place to
weather the storm.

"It's going to be a challenging winter. It's one of the reasons why our
organization is putting some significant resources to marketing," he said.
"Typically we leave it to other organizations to do but because we're
expecting a challenging winter, we want to put in our best effort to
maximize flight usage."

TMRAO plans to contribute $500,000 to advertising resources to augment
efforts underway by Telluride and Montrose visitor industry groups. Stewart
said the organization is going to work with them to coordinate and maximize
resources.

"Hopefully, we'll improve revenues ... and we don't get into a position of
cost exceeding revenues, whereby (carriers) want to drop this market."

In general, Stewart said TMRAO is working on crafting a plan to create a
dedicated funding source instead of relying on the city's general fund. "Our
goal is to try to find a way that users of services are the ones bearing the
burden, so that we can strengthen the funding in the long-term as well."

Montrose City Council last year directed the organization to explore another
funding source.

"Because the economic outlook for this year started trending down, finance
said we need to look at something we could count on in the way of a
dedicated funding stream, something along the lines of a lodging tax
increase," said former Mayor David White. Another option would be to
increase the per passenger fee now collected to help compensate for services
such as security, he said.

"There are no guarantees the city can continue funding the air organization
at the same level it has," White said. "There's a commitment to fund the
organization but it certainly would be better to have a (dedicated) funding
source."

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