Local air service to return

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Having finally secured screening equipment and personnel from the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration, Great Lakes Aviation appears to have cleared the final hurdle toward bringing commercial air service back to Gallup.

The City Council approved an $891,000 deal with the carrier for 14 months of daily flights to and from Phoenix in November. Great Lakes says service will begin July 1.

The carrier needs the screening equipment and personnel to be stationed at the Gallup Municipal Airport to make sure nothing and no one getting on its planes poses a threat. The airport never needed screeners before. But because Great Lakes will be docking at a secured port in Phoenix, TSA insisted that change.

Finding the screeners was another matter. Because of a federal hiring freeze, they've been in short supply. City Attorney and airport manager George Kozeliski said Great Lakes would probably have to wait for an airport to close somewhere else to free up the screeners it needs in Gallup.

More than half a year after striking its deal with the city, the screeners are on the way. Monica Taylor, the company's director of sales and marketing, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman stepped in to help make the final arrangements.

It's been almost two years since Westward Airways flew the last commercial flight out of Gallup. With so many delays in the city's efforts to bring service back, local travel agent Robbie Menapace, owner of The Travel Shoppe, said interest seemed to be waning. But with news of Great Lakes' pending arrival, she added, the calls are coming in.

"Now that they know it's coming, I got two calls yesterday," she said.

From what she's heard, Menapace believes the quick connection to Gallup's nearest major city will be popular.

"It just seems like everybody's got a last-minute meeting in Phoenix," she said.

Instead of making the five hour drive, or heading into Albuquerque to catch a flight there, she added, "they can fly direct into Phoenix."

The city has fought hard to bring commercial air service back. Officials have called it a key to Gallup's economic development, an invaluable resource for both local businesses trying to grow and for outside businesses looking to expand. When a company opens up a new location, City Manager Eric Honeyfield said, executives like to keep a close eye on things. Regular air service helps them do that.

Compared to Gallup's competitors, he said, "this puts us ahead of most of the rest of the pack."

The city is also counting on plenty of business from the Navajo Nation, which has a lot of ties to Phoenix. But according to Wayne Hunter, the tribe's air transportation director, the Navajo Nation's own fleet of three planes meets most of its needs. The tribe might consider sending business Gallup's way if one or two employee need a flight, he said. But for groups, the tribe's planes are cheaper.

Honeyfield's hoping for more interest from the tribe's private citizens.

But having seen Gallup get burned before, the city manager doesn't want to get his hopes up until he sees Great Lakes start advertising.

Taylor said the company has made arrangements to have flyers advertising its services go out with Gallup Joint Utilities' next billing and inserted into the next edition of the Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce's newsletter. Radio, newspaper and television ads will likely follow. Taylor herself plans to visit Gallup at the end of the month to meet with local businesses and potential customers personally.

As per its deal with the city, Great Lakes will be running two round-trip flights between Gallup and Phoenix Monday through Friday and one on weekends. A weekday flight to and from Denver, through Farmington, is also planned.

One way fares to Phoenix, booked 30 days in advance, start at $89 and can now be booked on the company's Web site. Its fares to Denver are still in the works.