Security delays airline flights

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — With a certificate from the U.S. Department of Transportation in hand, all the city can do now to bring commercial air service back to Gallup is wait for the Transportation Safety Administration to pull together a few security screeners.

The City Council signed an $890,000 deal with Great Lakes Airlines for regular flights to and from Phoenix in October and hoped to have service up and running by mid-February. But federal certification and security requirements have delayed arrival.

City Attorney George Kozeliski received news of the DOT certification, good for the next two years, late last week. The city needs it for the safe and legal handling of the 19-seat planes Great Lakes plans on flying in and out of Gallup.

To qualify, the city had to make several repairs and upgrades to the airport, from covering ditches in the runway's safety area to moving the "hold lines" the planes must stop on before beginning takeoff and replacing signs. Federal inspectors visited Gallup twice to make sure the city got it all done.

Because all the work was done in-house by city crews, Kozeliski could not say how much it cost. On top of it all, though, the city is leasing a specialized fire truck from Ruidoso, designed specifically for aircraft rescue, for $400 a month until July 2008 and $500 a month thereafter.

But because Great Lakes plans to fly into a secure airport in Phoenix, and in Show Low on the way, the city is after approval from the TSA as well.

That means finding the federally certified personnel and screening equipment to station at the city airport. But with a hiring freeze for such personnel still in place, that also means having to wait for another airport to shut down and free up the necessary personnel.

All that is supposed to happen at the TSA's expense, but City Manager Eric Honeyfield hasn't ruled out the option of having the city help out with the bill to move things along.

The city has been trying to restore commercial air service to Gallup since Westward Airways pulled out in July 2005, unable to cover its expenses. The company folded soon after.