EDITORIAL: Commercial air service was worth revenue guarantee

By Enterprise editorial staff
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, October 5, 2014


If you think about it, there are really two kinds of places. Those that have a college or university, and those that don't. Those that are on or near an interstate highway, those that aren't. Of course there are other dividing lines for regions that want to compete and win with the heavyweights, including this one: Those that have commercial air service, and those that don't.

Fortunately, Southeast Texas has been on the right side of that boundary since February 2013 after briefly spending some time on the other part. And it happened only because local governments and other organizations put up a $1.5 million revenue guarantee for American Airlines at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport.

The goal was to generate enough traffic so that the revenue guarantee wouldn't be touched. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. The revenue guarantee has been regularly tapped into and now less than $24,000 remains.

Still, the numbers prove that this effort was a success. Almost 110,000 seats on nearly 3,400 flights have been sold since air service resumed. Because the airport has commercial service, it received $3.1 million in grants for improvements from the Federal Aviation Administration this year and is expected to receive another $1.5 million next year. Without commercial air service, the airport would be limited to a paltry $100,000 per year in FAA grants.

With the deepening and widening of the Sabine-Neches ship channel coming, the region's economy is poised for a major growth spurt. Area petrochemical plants have also invested more than $20 billion in recent years in various expansions. With all that mega-spending going on, commercial air service is vital to keep the momentum flowing forward.

Flights to Dallas will continue at the airport until at least February 2018 due to a separate agreement between American and the U.S. Department of Justice on an anti-trust issue. Every elected official and business leader must do what is necessary to keep the arrivals and departures going. But it's not just them. So can every airline passenger in the region who chooses this airport instead of one in Houston or Lake Charles.

- Source:  http://www.beaumontenterprise.com