Just as skeptics about the newest attempt to bring commercial air service to Salem predicted, in a short time Avelo Airlines has gone from three destinations for outbound flights -- Santa Rosa, Las Vegas, and Burbank -- to only one, Burbank.
The best way I've found to describe the recurring fantasy of Salem's Chamber of Commerce and City Council that commercial air service is viable here is an image from the Peanuts comic strip, along with an excerpt from my January 2023 blog post, "City Council approves $2.4 million for airport in dumb move."
Here we go again.
Monday night the City Council approved spending $2.4 million in precious general fund dollars in yet another attempt to lure an airline willing to provide commercial air service at the Salem airport.
I guess Mayor Hoy and the eight city councilors have short memories. Or a penchant to forget the not-very-distant past when airlines came to town, and soon left town.
Because Chamber of Commerce types here keep promising that this time an airline will commit to providing commercial air service if enough public money is spent to show that Salem is serious about making the airport suitable for it.
Time to dust off the Charlie Brown and Lucy football metaphor. (If you aren't familiar with it, every fall Lucy promises that she'll put her finger on the ball so Charlie Brown can kick it, and every fall Lucy pulls the ball away just as Charlie Brown thinks this time she won't do it.)
Now, there's a chance this time will be when commercial air service comes to Salem and stays in Salem. But likely the $2.4 million, which is just the beginning of what the City of Salem needs to spend on airport improvements and subsidies, will be lost and gone forever before too long.
A December 12, 2024 Salem Reporter story describes the recent reduction in service, which follows the Avelo Airlines cancellation of flights to Santa Rosa.
Avelo Airlines is canceling flights from Salem to Las Vegas until at least the spring, dealing a blow to Salem’s efforts to build a robust commercial air service at the city-owned airport.
The budget carrier, which began flying out of Salem last October, announced Thursday it was shifting to a seasonal route, citing low demand.
“We are suspending our SLE-LAS service between January 7 and April 27 due to low demand during that time frame,” said Avelo spokeswoman Courtney Goff.
She said regular flights would resume in late April or early May. Customers with previously purchased tickets received refunds.
Amazingly, on November 25 of this year, just three weeks ago, Salem's airport manager, John Paskell, gave the City Council a rosy report of how Avelo Airlines was doing and described plans for expanding service to our city.
Avelo Airlines officially launched commercial air service at the Salem-Willamette Valley Airport on October 5, 2023, with two flights weekly to Las Vegas and Burbank. In the spring, Avelo added a third weekly flight to Burbank and launched new service to Sonoma County/Santa Rosa as a third destination. In September the service reverted to the original schedule of four flights weekly; seasonal increases in service are likely through the holidays and the spring/summer travel season.
City staff, community partners, and Volaire Aviation Consulting representatives continue recruiting efforts for additional air carriers and additional destinations with Avelo Airlines. The focus continues to be on key markets including other Los Angeles Basin airports, Phoenix/Mesa, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area airports, and eastbound to Denver and Salt Lake City.
Yeah, sure. Salem will be fortunate to get back the Las Vegas route, which, so to speak, is a gamble. Paskell's report included mention of a study by Volaire Aviation Consulting that claimed "Over $19M of spending in the community is attributed to commercial air service (as of July 2024)."
There was no link to that study. I searched for the study via Google. Couldn't find it. It wasn't on the Volaire Aviation Consulting web site either, so I guess we'll just have to trust that Volaire correctly estimated the economic impact of Avelo Airlines service to Salem.
Maybe. However Volaire Aviation Consulting clearly is a booster for air travel, not a dispassionate researcher. Here's what their web site says about Economic Impact Analysis.
We approach the economic impact an airport has on its community and region differently; from a pragmatic viewpoint. We want to understand, specifically, how the money generated by an airport flows through a regional economy. We work to break down specific impact from visitors generated by air service and to understand what would happen to an economy if air service disappeared overnight. These stark realities help garner community support and aid people in understanding just how important that runway really is.
We’re also able to project forward economic impact. We can pinpoint future impacts of a new airline route – a specific new service. We can forecast new hotel nights, new tourism revenue, and new business activity. We can also illustrate how new air service can grow a tax base – a key consideration in garnering air service support from surrounding communities.
It's possible that Avelo Airlines will restore service to Las Vegas. It's even possible that additional cities will be added to/from Salem.
However, based on Salem's past experience with commercial air service, the most likely possibility is that before too long Avelo will pocket the subsidies given it by the City Council and say "goodbye" to the Salem airport.
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