PORT ANGELES — Hardly a day goes by that Dan Gase doesn’t get a call asking about commercial air passenger service out of Port Angeles, which has not existed since Thanksgiving 2014.
“It’s just growing exponentially in regards to the apparent demand for air service,” Gase, manager of William R. Fairchild International Airport, said Tuesday.
Gase fielded a call from a woman Monday who wanted a flight to Southern California for a family funeral, and he was given another bow in his quiver Tuesday to attract potential airline service.
Port of Port Angeles commissioners unanimously approved an air service incentive program.
Commissioners Steven Burke, Connie Beauvais and Colleen McAleer approved spending up to $200,000 from the port’s recently extended federal Small Community Air Service Development Grant for minimum revenue guarantees and shared advertising for prospective airlines.
The U.S. Department of Transportation grant is available for a 60 percent-40 percent incentive program.
The $200,000 will be used to reimburse the port for up to 60 percent of its expenditures, or $133,000, while the federal government covers the 40 percent match.
The port’s match could include waived landing fees at Fairchild based on four daily flights, reduced or waived rents, other in-kind contributions and marketing costs, and cooperative advertising not to exceed $100,000, according to a port staff report.
Within the next few weeks, Gase will begin knocking on doors of area businesses willing to contribute funds to the $133,000 pot.
His destinations will include about 30 companies that participated in the grant program in 2016.
“We’ll be looking for interested businesses who have a stake in our community and can increase their business potential by partnering up with us,” Gase said.
The port must secure its share of the match before grant funds are available for additional expenditures.
Port officials acknowledged it won’t be easy attracting an airline.
Thirteen airlines were contacted by port officials in the 16 months since Kenmore Air stopped flying from Fairchild to Boeing field and back in November 2014.
More than $450,000 in incentives also were offered, without landing a carrier.
The grant approved Tuesday will cover service from Fairchild to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and back with eight-to-10-passenger aircraft, Gase said.
Sea-Tac has not been particularly inviting to small carriers in recent years, he acknowledged.
“We are going to try to find a solution to that,” Gase said. “Our prime location or destination for our grant money says Sea-Tac.
“That would be our Number 1 priority.”
A federal Small Community Air Service Development Grant also was awarded to Wenatchee to attract service from Pangborn Memorial Airport to the San Francisco Bay area.
It generated more than $400,000 in community matching funds, failing so far to bear fruit.
“The intent is not to have a perfect program here,” port Deputy Executive Director John Nutter said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The intent is to have a tool in the toolbox.”
The port also is fighting industry trends to larger aircraft and elimination of industry-subsidized feeder routes to smaller airports.
Ticket prices have been an issue with receiving air service, with one-way air fare of $100 the price point, Gase said, adding business travelers might pay more.
In January 2017, port Executive Director Karen Goschen told the Port Angeles Business Association that $100 was realistic for a ticket to Boeing Field and $150 was realistic for Sea-Tac.
The minimum revenue guarantee could help cut ticket prices, Gase said.
More than 10,000 annual enplanements would increase FAA funding for airport improvements from $100,000 to $1 million.
Port Angeles dipped below 10,000 annual enplanements in 2012 and never recovered, dipping to 6,800 in 2014.
Gase, a former Port Angeles City Council member, said Port Angeles is more economically vibrant than it was six years ago. He pointed to ongoing construction of the Elwha Hotel and Field Arts & Events Hall in downtown Port Angeles and the 7 Cedars Hotel in Blyn, which is opening this summer.
“A lot of people want to get customers flying in and out of the area, much more so than they were a few years ago,” Gase said.
Establishing air service remains one of the port’s top goals, Nutter said in an interview, noting there are no possible carriers on the horizon.
“If this was easy, it would have been done long ago,” he said.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
