Airport Authority

Airline Committee Airport Authority Board Report ( January 17t\ 2017 • Conducted ASD Working Group Meeting December 13th , CVB Hosted o Southstar presented Operational Calculations on Proposed Routes o Reviewed Presentation to the Mayor and Commission Work Session • Airline Committee Presented Air Service Development Briefing to Mayor and commission at December 15th Work Session o Asked for 651< to be included in Budget for Initial Work on Airline Recruiting, Consulting, and Marketing o Asked for approval to Submit Small Community Air Service Development Grant for $7501< for 2017 (March-June 2017 Grant Window) o Well Received o ABH Article/Flagpole ( • Airline Committee to meet today to Discuss: o Preparation to request (on-call) contract proposals for ASD Contract. o Preparation for SCASD Grant Proposal o Work with Economic Development and Managers office to begin preparation for airline recruiting negotiation. o Schedule next ASD Working Group Meeting o Strategy for community, state, support for SCASDG ( ( COLORBEARER OF ATHENS, GEORGIA LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 1987 NEWS> CITY DOPE December 21, 2016 Athens Officials Are Recruiting an Airline City Dope ;-~··~1 By Rebecca McCarthy Lllce 184 j Tweel !~.:':1.!{~J I...-~-··· ,J ( Photo Credit: Athens-Clarke County Athens-Clarke County commissioners heard a presentation at their Dec. 15 work session from the Airport Authority's Airline Committee, a group of dedicated volunteers who want affordable, dependable air service to return to Athens-Ben Epps Airport. They updated the Mayor and Commission about the progress of bringing an airline to Athens~as well as the challenges of keeping an airline in business and finding funds to continue their efforts to find suitable air service, I Currently, charter planes, military planes and flight schools all use the airport, but there's no consumer air i service, From 1970-2002, U.S. Airways provided service to Charlotte. For the next few years, various other I ( companies took over, ending with Seaport, which provided service to Nashville until Congress canceled Athens' Essential Air Service subsidy in 2014.  Athens is one of nine commercial airports in the state and one of five with no commercial airline. Changes In the airline industry and proximity to Atlanta seem to have left Athens high and dry-jets have replaced propeller planes, but smaller jets are just too inefficient to operate. A $17 million runway project at Ben Epps has been completed, resulting in a 6,200-foot runway capable of ( accommodating 70-person passenger jets regularly or a 110-person jet, the size plane UGA often uses, five times a year, said airline committee member Beth Higgins. Work on a commercial terminal has begun. There seems to be a demand for air service,judging by the numberof people from the Athens area flying out of Atlanta. In 2013, 1,660 people who live within a 40-minute drive of Athens flew each way per day, 94 percent into or out of Hartsfield-Jackson. The most popular destinations were New York and Washington, DC, according to an analysis of demand for air service. There are ways to translate demand into sustainable air service, Higgins said. The first step seems to be creating public-private partnerships, as other communities have done. They consider air service as part of a transportation system to support other economic initiatives. In Athens, a working group has formed whose members come from Piedmont Athens Regional hospital, UGA, Georgia Power, the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce and the Athens Convention and Visitors Bureau. Two federal programs provide grants to support the development of air service, and there are various incentive options as well. Higgins wants the Mayor and Commission to let airport manager Tim Beggerly apply for a Federal Small Community Air Service Development Grant, which can be as much as $750,000. comments ( 7Comments Sort by i Oldest M .,,~dd a comment... • Jeff Scarbrough · Athens, Georgia .,,. .• I_ Where did the other 6% go? Greenville? ll "'""-- ' Lil<e • Reply, Dao 21, 2016 3:11 pm !B Mary Ann Lineberry · Winterville, Georgia i- I'd say, yes .... We fly from and to Greenville, live in Winterville, NEVER i! Atlanta! Like· Reply· Dec 27, 2016 4:30pm Rachel Balley · Executive Director at My Athens David Flowe what sorcery did you perform to make this finally happen? • Lil<e ·Reply· Dec 22, 2016 8:49pm Robin J Richards The one time I flew to ATL from AHN was great....until they forced me into a van on • the return trip when the plane didn't work. Fix that and I bet hordes of people will fly from there. I /t,,-. . 0,.,..-.1,, . 1 . hr,r, r,7 ')"1 R ,1,')7,-,,....,  news/201 01-16/cas reward- offered- search- accused- athens-kil LOCALt Mon, 2017 ,1,~:~!:\ ,: ii{.~~. ~=;\'.~ '.1~~ ar.;..t.S~. '{·/litv1' •< (llocal- news/201 01-16/lar~ crowd-lini This 2012 file photo shows a SeaPort Airlines plane preparing for departure from Athens- downtow1 Ben Epps Airport. Sea Port left Athens two years ago, and airport officials are now working streets- athens-fir to attract sustainable commercial air service to Athens. (File photo) ( mlk-day- parade) There is "a real interest in Athens" in terms of commercial air service, and LOCAL t airport officials have had "little nibbles" from prospective carriers eyeing 2 hours·ag Athens-Ben Epps Airport, an airport official told Athens-Clarke County's mayor and commissioners. Athens-Ben Epps Airport Authority member Beth Higgins, part of an authority (/local- committee looking at air service development, wouldn't tell the mayor and news/201 commission publicly at their Thursday work session exactly which airlines were 01-16/nev looking at Athens, citing concerns about revealing any details prematurely. gate- dedicated Higgins did say there is evidence the Athens airport could attract a significant athens- number of commercial passengers, if they could easily get to the top restored- destinations noted in a 2014 study of the airline market in Athens-Clarke, brooklyn- Oconee and parts of eight surrounding counties within a 40-minute drive of cemetery Athens-Ben Epps Airport. ( FEATUR Mon, 201?  According to the Sixel Consulting Group study, the top two destinations for passengers within that "catchment area" are, according to 2013 numbers on ticketed passengers, New York and Washington, D.C. Rounding out the top five (/features ( destinations for commercial air passengers in the Athens area are south 01-16/130 Florida, Chicago and Los Angeles. list-get- medical- According to the study, nearly 93,000 airline tickets to New York were sold in marijuari, the Athens area in 2013, with almost 75,000 tickets sold for flights to georgia) Washington. Bringing even half of those passengers through Athens-Ben Epps Airport would help make commercial service from Athens-Ben Epps Airport viable, Higgins suggested Thursday. Thus fa·r, though, air carriers serving Athens have flown mostly to Charlotte, where local passengers could transfer to flights to their final destinations. For a short time, service to Atlanta was available, but the last air carrier to serve Athens, the now-defunct Sea Port Airlines, offered service to Nashville. "Nobody wanted to go to Nashville," Higgins said, and the Federal Aviation Administration rejected requests that SeaPort be allowed to fly to Charlotte. ( Sea Port left Athens two years ago, after failing to meet passenger load requirements of the federal Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes airlines serving smaller communities. There are a number of challenges in bringing sustained commercial air service to Athens, Higgins said in a briefing delivered at the mayor and commission's non-voting work session. One problem is that smaller airlines interested in serving places like Athens are "few and far between." And, Higgins said, Athens isn't the only community looking to attract those carriers. "We're not alone in our efforts, and most of the communities I've investigated are way ahead of us," she said. Major airlines, the so-called "legacy.carriers" like Delta, are not much interested in serving relatively short routes, Mayor Nancy Denson and the ·,_;:;, f. ( commissioners learned Thursday. Large airlines have been phasing out the propeller-driven aircraft that have traditionally served shorter routes. ,·~:j.I  In making the transition to all-jet fleets, airlines have discovered that 50-seat This We jets are expensive to operate, so they have moved to jets that can carry from 70 to 100 passengers. At that point, though, there is no operational efficiency ~ ( for the airlihes in serving markets like Athens. ttl!A; There are things that Athens could be doing to help a commercial air carrier develop an interest in Athens, according to Higgins. Part of the approach <ii HOVER f.' should be a public-private partnership that integrates air service development with the community's broader economic development efforts. Already, a working group aimed toward that goal, which includes representatives of Piedmont Athens Regional hospital, the University of Georgia, Georgia Power, View all L the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, along with local government representatives, has been formed, Higgins told commissioners. Among the strategies that might be helpful in bringing commercial air service to Athens would be tax incentives, airport incentives like landing-fee waivers, "ticket banks" in which larger local institutions purchase tickets in advance and allocate them as needed to their travelers, and revenue guarantees to airlines ( that could be funded through a federal Small Community Air Service Development Grant. "We're like a poster child for this grant/ Higgins said. Higgins and the rest of the Airline Committee, along with Airport Director Tim Beggerly, came to the mayor and commission to ask that they consider Advert allocating $65,000 in the upcoming fiscal year to air service development, with $25,000 earmarked for marketing Athens and the airport, $20,000 for consultant services, and another $20,000 for recruiting a commercial air I carrier. The Airline Committee also asked Thursday for permission to apply for a I (http: ' . $750,000 federal air service grant. While commissioners could take no formal action at the work session, some of them did have some suggestions. (  • Commissioner Andy Herod, who like Higgins noted the virtual monopoly that Type Delta Air Lines has on commercial service in Atlanta, suggested that some conversation with state and federal lawmakers, to determine their level of Make interest in supporting a commercial air service venture in Athens that could affect Delta's bottom line, might be a good place to start to determine the Model viability of searching out a local commercial air carrier. Herod also asked whether it might be wise to start looking at Athens-Ben Epps Postal Code Airport as an air freight center. There is already some air freight flying in to Athens, Beggerly said, but Higgins went on to say that freight aircraft might be too large to use Athens-Ben Epps Airport. Commissioner Sharyn Dickerson wondered Thursday whether some of the proceeds of the county's hotel-motel tax might be used to fund the · committee's request for funding for air service development, given that the airport brings people to Athens who do patronize local hotels. Commissioner Kelly Girtz had the most hard-eyed assessment of commercial air service recruitment efforts. If further efforts toward attracting commercial ( air service reveal that Athens isn't In "that sweet spot" for attracting sustainable commercial service, Girtz said, the county might want to consider some sort of transit option linking Athens to the Atlanta airport. At least one private shuttle service already operates between Athens and Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport. During Thursday's presentation, Higgins indicated she remains optimistic that some air carriers will figure out a way to offer service from places like Athens to popular destinations. "There's got to be a business model out there, and some entrepreneur is going to come into these small airports," she said. ( tt 1 Comment Subscribe