Cape Air
Cape Air flies Cessna 402 planes such as this in and out of Rutland airport.
The twin-engine roar of a Cape Air nine passenger Cessna 402 is the sound of success at the state owned Rutland-Southwest airport.
State aviation director Guy
Rouelle says a record 11,000 passengers flew out of Rutland last year, and the state expects a 25 percent
increase this year. Cape Air recently added a fourth daily flight.
"It's in the right place in
the state and it's a good partnership we have with them," he said. "It's a
JetBlue code share. So you can fly to Boston, and then fly to China, from Rutland."
Business is much, much slower
at the state-owned Caledonia County airport in Lyndonville. There are no commercial
flights. And on some days, no flights at all.
"You could go four or five
days without a single plane," said Tim Peters of the Vermont Pilots
Association. "And then on the sixth day you might have four or five flights. So
that's the typical operation of Caledonia County."
The state Transportation
Agency doesn't expect every one of the 10 state-owned airports to be as
successful as Rutland. But officials are trying to cut losses and improve
financial performance. Some of the changes have been controversial, and it's
not yet clear whether the reforms will fly.
At the Caledonia airport, officials replaced the private operator with a state employee
in an effort to improve the bottom line.
Until the end of June, the Vermont
Pilots Association was the Caledonia's fixed based operator, or FBO. The association sold
fuel and managed airport operations.
But the
state imposed new management. The pilot's association is out and a
temporary state employee is now running the place.
The changes come as the state
looks closely at how well all the publicly owned air fields are run. Guy
Rouelle of the aviation division said contracts with private operators were
recently reviewed at seven of the 10 airports, and three - Newport, Morrisville
and Highgate - were found to be performing well.
"Four of the other airports
in the state were running some pretty steep deficits," he said.
Caledonia airport cost the state about $50,000 last year, he
said. The other financially troubled airports are Middlebury, Springfield's
Hartness Field, and the William H. Morse airport in Bennington.
Rouelle wants four minimum
services at each airport: flight instruction, aircraft rental, fuel sales and a
maintenance shop.
He said the state has added
its own employees at some airports, and taken over operations such as fuel
sales in order to erase deficits.
"The goal for the aviation program
is to put these airports on a sustainable path where they not only are able to
pay for themselves, but in addition to that are able to provide the public with
all of the services that three of our airports are producing currently and are
strong financial drivers for their region," he said. "And there's no reason why
these other airports cannot do the same."
The state's approach is if
they build it, the planes will come. So if an airport provides a mechanic or offers
flight lessons, for example, officials expect demand to grow for that service.
But Peters at the Pilot's
Associations questions the logic. He said there's never been a mechanic on hand
at Caledonia. And student pilots can learn to fly at nearby Newport airport. He said a flight school is not financially
viable at Caledonia.
"My personal opinion... is that
there simply isn't a market for these types of things," he said.
The effort to erase deficits
at the state's small airports is not new. Former Transportation Secretary David
Dill recalls legislative debates in the 1990s that led to calls to close
airports to save taxpayers money.
"The communities look at it
as an economic development for the region, but a tool that should be supported
b y the state and funded by the state for the benefit of the region," he said. "I
don't think that kind of dilemma has really changed."
Source: http://www.vpr.net
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