PORT ANGELES — One wing looks ready to fly. Now for the prayer.
Scheduled air service from William R. Fairchild International Airport could take off as soon as late this fall — if an airline accepts proposed fee waivers and marketing incentives from the Port of Port Angeles that would lift an air carrier’s chance to make a profit.
As for the prayer, it’s that passengers would fill one or two daily flights to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport aboard airplanes with 70 to 76 seats — the option a consultant called the most appealing to major air carriers.
That was the gist — among a wide range of variables — of an air service plan presented to Port of Port Angeles commissioners Tuesday by Ben Munson of Denver-based Forecast Inc.
Munson and port officials now must try to sell the proposal to an airline that could be Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air or Delta Airlines-owned Skywest Airlines or one of three smaller carriers.
Horizon would fly 76-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft. Skywest flies Bombardier CRJ700 jets that seat 70 passengers.
Other carriers who have expressed interest in Port Angeles are Alaska-affiliated Penair Airlines, which flies 34-passenger Saab 340s, and Seaport Airlines of Portland, Ore., and Kenmore Air of Seattle, both of which fly nine- to 13-passenger Cessna Caravan single-engine turboprops.
Kenmore Air canceled its service to Port Angeles last November, citing shrinking ridership and rising costs and leaving the North Olympic Peninsula without scheduled passenger air service.
Munson’s alternative proposals listed Seaport or Kenmore making three to five flights to Seattle daily.
Commissioner Colleen McAleer wasn’t enthused about bigger planes making fewer trips.
Citing the last days of Kenmore Air service, she said boardings dropped as flights became less frequent.
“I’m very concerned that one flight a day won’t be sustainable, won’t be successful,” McAleer said.
She added that she’d prefer that marketing dollars buy broadcast and print advertising from Clallam County outlets.
And Commissioner John Calhoun said the port should waive parking fees at Fairchild.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Parking? I’m not going to pay it. I’ll drive to Seattle.’ It’s not rational, but they say it,” Calhoun said.
Still, Munson called once-daily service “a very realistic scenario for the port.”
He made his presentation by speakerphone to commissioners meeting in port headquarters, 338 W. First St.
He said the port would risk money at first and become profitable in the third year.
More of the port’s contribution would come from waiving all landing and terminal fees the first year and half the fees the second year.
The port also would make marketing contributions of $6 per outbound seat offered by any airline in a year.
That would drop to $3 per seat after the first year, Munson said.
The incentives’ value to the airlines varied according to the types of airplane and numbers of flights.
If Horizon would fly Q400s to Fairchild twice daily, the incentives would be worth more than $1 million a year, Munson said, with similar savings with Skywest flying CRJ700s twice a day.
The incentives for a carrier flying Caravans would be worth $300,000 for three flights, $350,000 for four flights and $400,000 for five flights.
If Penair provided two daily Saab 340 flights, it would get incentives worth $550,000, Munson said.
Munson said he hoped the cities of Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim, plus Clallam County government, could raise up to $20,000 worth of marketing support.
“It’s a real concrete demonstration of support that we can take to the carriers that all the communities in the catchment area support us,” Munson said.
He said he would take proposals to interested airlines starting next week.
“There is, of course, a degree of risk,” he said.
“From an airline’s perspective, the risk is much more heavily towards the carrier.”
Flying between Fairchild to Sea-Tac wouldn’t be where the real money would be made, he said.
It would be in the flights that leave from Seattle and go elsewhere, such as to Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
“It’s the leisure component in that scenario that’s going to help that service be successful,” he said.
And if it’s to be successful for the port, he said, “it’s got to be more than twice as good for the carrier.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
