America’s small cities, including Gallup, losing their air service

A Great Lakes Airlines twin-engine aircraft descends toward the ground as it prepares for landing Thursday at the Gallup Municipal Airport. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — Gallup isn’t the only rural city losing air service. Air Midwest ceased service to Prescott, Ariz., according to city officials. The mountain community is looking for another air service provider.

It’s a frustration felt across rural America. The federal government guaranteed numerous small towns and cities air service 30 years ago when it deregulated the industry. But skyrocketing fuel prices have outpaced subsidies from the Essential Air Service program, and many carriers are either trying to renegotiate their contracts or dropping out altogether.

According to the Department of Transportation, which administers the program, airlines have asked to opt out of subsidy contracts to 20 cities so far this year. That almost matches 2007’s total of 24 cities. In 2006, airlines asked to drop contracts for 15 cities.

Great Lakes Airlines pulled out of Gallup last March leaving the city without a carrier. The city began seeking other providers, such as New Mexico Air. Executive Director of the city’s Public Works Division Stan Henderson, who is covering while City Manager Gerald Herrera is on vacation, wasn’t certain, but he thought the city was still pursuing the option.

“I suspect it’s still being considered conceptually,” Henderson said.

He said, though, that there’s no danger of losing the airport, which still has a high volume of traffic.

“As far general aviation goes, it’s a fairly busy airport,” he said.

Finding another air carrier for Gallup is about to get tougher. The federal government plans to slash its Essential Air Service budget for 2009 to $50 million, less than half of its program budget in each of the past seven years.

Jim Corridore, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s, said rural communities should get ready for even fewer flights in the future.

“This is not a charity,” Corridore said. “Airlines are in a business to make money, and they’re not. In fact, they’re losing billions of dollars. So something needs to be cut.”

The Regional Airline Association disagrees. Rural communities could keep their air service if the federal program was tweaked and given the funding it needs, said Faye Malarkey, a lobbyist for the association.

As jet fuel costs jumped, more than doubling from $1.86 per gallon at the beginning of 2007 to $3.96 per gallon in May, airlines were locked into the same subsidy. Currently, the only way an airline can adjust a subsidy contract for higher fuel costs is to ask to get out of its obligation, wait 180 days as the department mulls the request and then rebid for the contract, Malarkey said.

“It really is just about the worst thing you can do to the service," she said. “You’ve got the community up in arms. They don’t quite understand. The airline seems to be abandoning them.”