Wednesday, November 25, 2015

OUR OPINION: Tupelo Regional Airport (KTUP) authority presses tough air service questions • Corporate Flight Management says Tupelo is ‘a good fit’

The Tupelo Airport Authority and three members of the City Council on Monday extensively questioned three owner/executives of Corporate Flight Management, a Nashville-based aviation firm, in the latest search for airline service with staying power at Tupelo Regional Airport.

Two other successors to Delta services operating between Tupelo and other cities have not been able to rebuild Tupelo’s shattered passenger volume.

The flying public has exited the Tupelo market in droves, apparently choosing instead to drive to larger airports in other cities such as Birmingham and Memphis, as well as Columbus.

Corporate Flight Management officials flew to Tupelo in the airplane proposed for use in Tupelo, a Jetstream twin-engine turboprop produced by British Aerospace. The plan is configured for 19 passengers, but CFM proposes to use a nine-seat arrangement if the company gets Tupelo’s business.

CFM has a diverse business portfolio, including scheduled charter service between Nashville and Canton, for Nissan employees, and government charter services. It also operates an airline dubbed “Buzz” serving three Texas cities and summer service to Branson, Missouri. It provides Alternative Essential Air Service to Manistee, Michigan, to Chicago as well as Victoria, Texas, to Austin and Dallas.

Airport authority board member Jim Newman led questioning of CFM officials, with others also participating. Three City Council members, Buddy Palmer, Travis Beard and Nettie Davis, attended. Davis both questioned failures and offered strong comments about Tupelo not being able to afford another airline service failure.

Tupelo, which once had more than 30,000 enplanements in 2006, has fallen below 10,000, thus losing $750,000 in federal funding.

Davis hammered her strongest recommendation, that Tupelo adequately market and promote new air service in a good-faith attempt to win back fliers who formerly flew out of and into Tupelo. Other airport authority members stressed the need for a commitment to always use two pilots in the twin-engine Jetstream – CFM says it is a requirement – and to seek a twin-engine plane, with a long-term goal of a carrier using commuter jets.

While questioning was cordial, it was at times intense, which should be the case given Tupelo’s air service situation. Authority members seem intent on not tolerating what is widely seen as unkept commitments in the last two EAS service situations.

The authority faces a Nov. 30 deadline for submitting comments to the Federal Aviation Administration, which grants approval for service. The fast-approaching deadline requires deliberate action, but it must not be hasty.

- Source:  http://djournal.com/opinion

Looking to take off: Corporate Flight says Tupelo is ‘a good fit’

TUPELO – Corporate Flight Management is willing to fly people for free – for a little while, at least – to get them interested in getting in the company’s planes and flying between Tupelo and Nashville.

The airline is one of four bidding to provide air service in the All-America City.

It also is the only bidder offering a twin-engine plane.

The other bidders – Air Choice One, Boutique Air and Sun Air – are offering single-engine planes, like what SeaPort Airlines offered during its one-year stay in Tupelo.

And CFM thinks Tupelo is ideally suited for its service.

“Tupelo is very convenient for us geographically,” said Matt Chaifetz, CFM’s chief executive officer. “We’re based in Smyrna, Tennessee, and it took us just 42 minutes to fly in from our service in Nashville. We can swap out crews very easily, aircraft maintenance becomes much easier. What’s important to us is that it brings back reliability of the operation to a market like Tupelo which has suffered so great in the last couple of years.

“Tupelo is a good fit for us, and we think we’re a good fit for Tupelo.”

Chaifetz met with airport officials, city leaders and others for more than two hours Monday at Tupelo Regional Airport.

CFM also let those in attendance get a look inside the Jetstream 31/32 plane it plans to use for its Tupelo service if it lands the bid.

The plane will have a pilot and a first officer. The pressurized cabin can fly at 25,000 feet, allowing it to fly above most bad weather, officials noted.

CFM has six Jetstreams in its inventory. While the planes can accommodate 19 passengers, the company will reconfigure them to hold nine.

To entice passengers, Chaifetz said CFM would be amenable to providing free tickets or nominally priced tickets.

“If it takes free tickets of get people to fly from Tupelo to Nashville, we’ll do it,” he said.

Once business builds, tickets would cost no more than $49 or $59.

CFM, like the other airlines, would essentially be air taxis, carrying passengers to Nashville. If that’s the final destination, passengers need not do anything more. But if they’re flying to another destination, they must buy another ticket from a traditional airline such as Southwest.

Chaifetz said he’d like to hold the maximum price to $49; it not, he said, there isn’t enough incentive to keep people from hopping in their cars and driving to another airport like Memphis to catch a flight.

Addressing issues like reliability and pilot shortages, Chaifetz said CFM would have a plane dedicated to Tupelo only, not having to share it with another route. He also said any mechanical issues could be handled quickly since CFM’s facility in Smyrna is only 15 minutes from Nashville.

And because CFM pays its pilots better than many of its competitors, he said a lack of pilots “will not be an issue.”

Corporate Flight Management is offereing three options from Tupelo, all of which connect with Nashville with 30, 18 or 12 weekly roundtrip flights.

CFM is asking for an annual subsidy of $4.29 million (for 30 flights), $2.97 million (18 flights) or $2.34 million (12 flights).

Chaifetz said his company’s bids are more expensive than the others being considered, but noted the twin-engine planes CFM flies are bigger and use more fuel.

“It becomes a question of value, and we think we have the better value with the bigger plane and you’re getting better service,” he said.

CFM also will make the rounds to talk to businesses and others about their air service, something SeaPort and its predecessor, Silver Airlines failed to do.

Tupelo Airport Authority board member Jim Newman said he was impressed by CFM’s presentation.

“I think they did a good job answering a lot of tough questions,” he said. “I’m looking forward to hearing what the other board members think, as well as other comments.”

The city has until Nov. 30 to submit comments to the Transportation Department on its choice for an airline.

If CFM is selected, it would be late February or March before it could get its service in place.

Source:  http://djournal.com


No comments:

Post a Comment