Alamosa may change airline service

ALAMOSA — SLV Regional Airport will have a new air carrier if the Department of Transportation follows the recommendation of the Alamosa County commissioners.

After hearing presentations from three airlines, including current carrier Boutique Air, commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend that California Pacific Airlines (Aerodynamics Inc.) receive the subsidy to provide Essential Air Service (EAS) to the regional airport for the next two-year contract. The third proposal came from Denver Air Connection.

The airport advisory board had mixed feelings about the three proposals, but the county commissioners recommended California Pacific because of its potential for growth. The community may also provide input on the three proposals by August 2 to: [email protected]. (DOCKET DOT-OST-1997-2960.)

Boutique Air has been serving the area since receiving the EAS contract in 2016 when the county and ultimately the Department of Transportation decided to switch from previous carrier Great Lakes to Boutique. Boutique Air provides daily trips to Denver and back in an eight-seat plane and proposed to increase capacity to nine seats if selected to continue serving Alamosa and the surrounding area.

California Pacific, whose headquarters are in Kennesaw, Georgia, proposed to use a 50-seat plane, and Denver Air Connection proposed initial service with a 9-seat Metroliner with expansion two days a week to a 30-passenger jet once the county reacquires its 139 certificate.

Each of the three airlines proposed comparable fares, about $100 one way to Denver, but their annual subsidy request from the Department of Transportation (DOT) for Essential Air Service varied from $3.74 million for California Pacific to $3.53 million for Denver Air Connection and $2.89 million or $3.39 million (depending on the size of the plane) for the first year of a new contract with Boutique Air (increasing in the second year to $2.94 million or $3.46 million, whether using an eight- or nine-seat aircraft.)

Representatives of the airlines made presentations to the county officials, airport advisory board and the public on Wednesday. 

California Pacific Airlines

ALAMOSA — Executive Vice President Mickey Bowman said that while Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI) had been around for 59 years, it had only been an Essential Air Service provider since 2016.

The airlines had primarily provided charter service for such clients as Dow Chemical until its first scheduled operations from Watertown and Pierre, South Dakota to Denver from August 2016 to the present. The airline was recently awarded another two-year contract to serve those two cities.

Bowman, however, has been involved in EAS since the program began in 1979. “We know how the program works,” he said, “and how to make it work best for the community as well.”

He added that as a charter service, ADI had placed a high priority on premium service, and their clients expected them to be on time, reliable and able to provide a premium product, which he believed the airlines had accomplished.

Safety has also been a primary focus, and during its entire history the airlines has had no accidents.

ADI was recently purchased and will begin operating under the name California Pacific Airlines on September 1. Tickets will be available on the airlines’ website as well as through travel services. A new website, mycpair.com will go live August 1.

Bowman said the airline has worked closely with the airport board and management in the South Dakota cities it serves. It has spent $60,000 annually on marketing through various means including radio, newspaper and billboards and was successful using Facebook in Watertown. Bowman said Watertown was on the list to be eliminated from EAS because it exceeded the $200 cap subsidy per passenger, as much as $700 over. Last month the per passenger subsidy there was $117 because traffic “has exploded.”

“I think we can do the same for this community,” Bowman said. “There’s so much potential in this market. I see the same potential in this market as I saw when we went to Watertown.”

Flight completion rates in the South Dakota market were 97 percent and on-time (within 15 minutes) were 89 percent.

Bowman said surveys from customers have indicated that what is most important to them are 1) price; 2) schedule; 3) reliability; and 4) customer service.

He said customer service is one of the airlines’ priorities. “What we stress to our people treat everyone like family. These communities we serve are relatively small. We have to become part of the community.” Local people would be hired, airline representatives would attend airport board meetings, and the station manager would become involved in the community through civic organizations and other involvement, “making sure we have a presence in the community.”

California Pacific Airlines proposes to serve the Alamosa airport with a 50-seat plane, which Bowman said would not always be full but would always provide that capacity for passengers and baggage. The airline would use the Embrae ERJ145, a jet that would feature two (leather) seats on one side and one on the other, on board lavatory, overhead and ample luggage space. The aircraft would be housed here, as would maintenance staff, Bowman said.

Currently the airline does not have interline agreements with other carriers, he said, but that would be a priority in the future.

Tickets would be $99 (nonrefundable but changeable) or $125 for refundable tickets. Lower fares might be offered at various times to fill seats, Bowman added. All flights would be to Denver with two round trips daily, with flights tentatively departing Alamosa at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and returning from Denver at 10:50 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. (Audience input was that the flights might need to leave Alamosa earlier so passengers would have time to make connections in Denver, and Bowman said the flight times could be changed.)

Flight time to Denver would be about 30 minutes.

The requested EAS subsidy from the Department of Transportation would be $3,747,848.

Boutique Air

ALAMOSA — Boutique Air CEO Shawn Simpson reviewed some of the company’s history and successes since it began serving as the Essential Air Service designee in Alamosa. He started the company in 2009, and Boutique Air now provides service to 30 U.S. cities with 450 flights. The first EAS contract for the company was in Clovis, New Mexico, where Boutique Air took over the contract formerly held by Great Lakes, which also occurred in Alamosa. The airline now has 15-16 EAS contracts.

Boutique Air focuses on reliability, customer service and technology, Simpson said. The airlines’ overall reliability ranking is 97.8 percent. Boutique Air’s commitment to customer service is evidenced in its approximately 150 customer service agents providing access to passengers from 4 a.m. to midnight. “We do our best to take care of people,” he said.

Regarding its priority to technology, Boutique Air has a modern web site where it is easy to book flights. The airline also offers voucher packages. Boutique Air does not have baggage fees.

Boutique Air flies Pilatus PC-12 airplanes, which provide eight seats. However, the airlines also has the opportunity to use King Air 350 planes, which are a little larger and can hold more baggage, provide a lavatory and one more seating space than the Pilatus. The plane is a bit more expensive, but both are good aircraft, Simpson said. He added that Boutique Air has been using the King Air planes already to some extent here.

He said Boutique Air has launched a codeshare partnership with United Airlines, which is quite a feat since United does not enter these types of agreements very often, and it means United sees Boutique Air as a high quality carrier. Codeshare means “they put their brand on our flights.” When going on line to find a flight from Alamosa, for example, customers will see United as a partner. They will also accumulate frequent flyer miles through United and will have access to the approximately 140 destinations through United out of Denver.

Alamosa is one of the highest if not the highest traffic generator in the Boutique Air system for United, Simpson said. “A lot of Alamosa people are traveling with United.”

Boutique Air’s EAS proposal calls for 24 weekly round trips (four round trips daily) to Denver, with the requested subsidy $2,891,307 the first year if Boutique Air continues to use the PC-12 airplanes and $3,393,865 for the first year, using the larger King Air 350 planes.

The average fares under Boutique Air’s proposal are $89, using the Pilatus PC-12 planes, or $108 using the larger King Air 350.

Simpson said when Boutique Air went into Clovis, New Mexico, it doubled and tripled the traffic, and the airline has nearly doubled the traffic in Alamosa as well.

“I am happy to say things have gone pretty well in Alamosa,” he said.

The previous carrier was transporting 500-750 passengers per month, and Boutique Air is now transporting more than 1,000, with 1,292 passengers transported last month.

The highest traffic Alamosa historically experienced was about 14,500, and Boutique Air would break that record if the trend from the last three months continues, Simpson said. That was a pretty good success rate for only about one and a half years in service here, he added.

Boutique Air initially offered flights to Denver and Albuquerque, New Mexico, but now only flies to Denver, finding that the Albuquerque flights were not viable.

The airlines’ reliability rating has been 98-99 percent. Acquiring more aircraft has helped buoy that number, Simpson said. As far as on-time performance, the airline is working on that and has developed software that tracks on-time performance, and pilots must detail why there was a delay, which is helping the airlines identify the problems to correct them. One of the problems in the past, for example, was waiting to get fuel at the Denver airport because smaller carriers do not receive the priority the larger ones do. Boutique Air purchased a fuel truck to help eliminate the fuel delays, Simpson explained.

“We’ve got good reliability in general, but we recognize we need to be improving our on-time performance,” Simpson said.

Boutique Air has been spreading its maintenance work out in some of the smaller communities it serves and is considering opening a maintenance shop in Alamosa, Simpson said.

Regarding safety, Boutique Air has an excellent record with only one injury out of 83,518 flights, which was not serious and was turbulence related.

Alamosa County Administrator Gigi Dennis asked Simpson about the potential for growth when the only option is a plane with one more seat. She said sometimes people who fly out of Alamosa cannot get back in on Sunday because the flights are full. She mentioned that Boutique Air had promised to spend money marketing and advertising, but expansion is limited with the size of the planes now being used and proposed to be used.

Simpson said the company wanted to advertise more, but many of the flights are full, so there would not be room for more passengers if the airline were conducting marketing efforts.

He said if Sundays are busier and people are having trouble getting flights back to Alamosa on Sundays, the airline could take a flight away from one of the weekdays and add a flight on Sunday.

“We can move things around a little bit,” he said.

Simpson said that the current and proposed plans for Boutique Air are economically feasible and keep Alamosa under the Department of Transportation’s $200 per-passenger subsidy cap. The airline has remained under that cap, he added. He said Boutique Air began with $2.5 million EAS subsidy and is requesting $2.8 million. He said DOT is not a cash machine, and adding 12 percent more seating with the King Air was a big step, but going larger than that might be a step DOT would not be willing to subsidize, as it might require a subsidy of $3.7 million or more.

Denver Air Connection

ALAMOSA Of the three airlines making proposals for the Valley’s Essential Air Service, Denver Air Connection, a Key Lime Air Company, is a relative newcomer to scheduled passenger air service but has operated as a cargo and small passenger operation since 1997.

For example, Denver Air has served as a UPS feeder and as a cargo service has flown into Alamosa in the past. It has been in the cargo flight business for about 22 years.

Denver Air has also flown charter flights for groups like university teams, oilfield employees, musicians and other celebrities.

In 2005 Denver Air Connection began daily passenger flights between Grand Junction and Centennial Airport in Denver. The airline subsequently began scheduled service between Denver and Sheridan and Riverton, Wyoming. In the 13 months since operations began there, completion rates have been 99.6 percent and on-time performance 96.5 percent.

Denver Air is proposing to use a nine-seat Metroliner in Alamosa five days a week for three round trips daily and a 30-seat jet two days a week, with two round trips each of those days. As the market grows, the usage of the larger plane could increase over time, Denver Air Connection President Cliff Honeycutt said.

Flights from Alamosa would be to Denver International Airport. Flight time would be about 35 minutes. The Metroliner would provide plenty of legroom and baggage space. The jet would include a flight attendant and bathroom.

Honeycutt said he did not think the Alamosa market at this point required a 30-seat jet seven days a week. He added, “It has to be profitable on our end.”

The airline would have a marketing budget and would use key advertising venues.

Prices would be about $100 each way. The requested subsidy is $3,537,692.

Key Lime is the cargo portion of the airline and Denver Air the passenger side. Key Lime has had a couple of fatalities associated with single pilot cargo operations in 2014 and 2016 and has implemented safety management systems. There have been no accidents or injuries with passenger service, however, Honeycutt said.

When asked why they were interested in Alamosa, Honeycutt said it was an opportunity to bid on an EAS route and he believed the airline could make a difference in the community.

The airline would make it a priority to negotiate interline agreements with larger airlines like United, Honeycutt added.