AUGUST 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Cuts wound rural air service
STATEWIDE
Turbulence hit the state’s rural airline service this
summer, as flight service was reduced or canceled in several
communities, leaving in its wake concern that businesses and
economic development will be harmed.
Citing spiking fuel prices, Horizon Air has told the U.S.
Department of Transportation that it wants to eliminate its
three daily Pendleton-Portland flights and replace them with
two flights to Seattle. Horizon, under the Essential Air
Service (EAS) program, gets $748,000 to help subsidize that
service. The subsidy program helps entice air service to rural
communities.
The DOT denied the request until it finds a replacement.
Horizon also said it plans to terminate flights to Portland
from Klamath Falls and North Bend-Coos Bay (it receives no
subsidies for those markets).
“Horizon has been telling us for five years that this
would happen,” says Larry Dalrymple, Pendleton’s
economic development director. Horizon, along with other
regional carriers around the country, has replaced its 17-30
seat planes with 76-passenger planes and those additional seats
are harder to fill in the short-haul markets.
There were other blows to rural service this summer: United
plans to scale back service in Medford and Eugene; Delta plans
to cut its Eugene to Los Angeles nonstop and also reduce its
service in Salem; and US Airways Express will stop service in
and out of Medford. Some good news for North Bend-Coos Bay was
the Skywest United Express flights that began in July to San
Francisco International Airport. Horizon’s departure in
October from the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport leaves
Skywest as the only carrier in North Bend.
Dan Clem, director of the Oregon Department of Aviation, says
the state is most concerned about the service cutbacks in North
Bend and Klamath Falls and that he is talking to the Oregon
Economic and Community Development Department about support
options.
The cutbacks “sent shock waves through Oregon; and
Washington is in the same boat,” says Bob Noble,
executive director of the Oregon Airport Management
Association. He says the short hauls that serve rural areas
generally are not profitable and need a subsidy, and the right
size of smaller aircraft are not available to allow a willing
carrier to fill the gap. Most airlines, such as Horizon, are
purchasing more profitable 70 or 90-seat aircraft. “This
storm was coming without the fuel problem,” he says.
Small towns across the country are facing similar cutbacks.
The federal DOT reports that so far this year airlines have
asked to cut service to 27 rural communities subsidized by the
EAS program, including the three in Oregon. If those requests
are finalized, it would mean that since 1996, 320 rural
communities nationwide have lost their air service.
“I think you are going to see wholesale cancellation of
rural flights, accelerated by fuel costs,” says Maurice
Parker, executive director of Regional Aviation Partners, a
national lobbying group. The group says that, since 2001, the
number of carriers serving EAS communities has declined by 40%.
Since May 2007, 48 of 106, or 45%, of EAS communities have had
a 90-day termination notice filed by the air carrier serving
their community.
As the lady said, fasten your seat belts. It’s going to
be a bumpy ride.
ROBIN DOUSSARD
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