Airport board scans the horizon for answers

The Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport Authority Board had an atypically amicable special session Friday, until it didn't.

The meeting was called to discuss budget impacts from the sudden loss of commercial passenger flights to Seattle and Boise after Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, announced this week it will discontinue serving Lewiston in August.

Board members reviewed airline service options for regaining those flight destinations and discussed retaining legal counsel.

As frequently has been the case with the embattled board, there were fireworks before it was all over, this time just after the board adjourned. The board recently has seen a number of resignations and the sudden ouster of a board chairman.

Agenda items were addressed politely, including how to find an airline willing to serve Lewiston to replace the discontinued flights. Horizon cited low capacity flights from Lewiston, a shortage of pilots and other financial issues surrounding aviation as its reasons for discontinuing flights from Lewiston to Boise and Seattle. Horizon began service in Lewiston in 1983.

Horizon's departure means Lewiston's only direct flights will be to Salt Lake City, through SkyWest. Passengers bound for Boise could connect through Salt Lake City, or drive to Pullman for a Seattle-Boise connection. Alternately, they could drive to Spokane for direct flights to Boise or Seattle.

Airport manager Stephanie Morgan said she conducted some research and found the average Lewiston-to-Seattle flight was at 62 percent capacity, while the average Lewiston-to-Boise flight was at 56 percent capacity. Alternatively, Morgan found the average Pullman-to-Seattle flight was at 68 percent capacity, rounding out to fewer than five passengers more than the average Lewiston-to-Seattle flight.

Morgan said she intends to put together a task force of community members and consultants to find airline services willing to restore flights to Seattle and Boise. She said finding a service to Seattle shouldn't be too difficult since it's a transportation hub, but restoring the Boise destination will be harder.

"The plan right now is to re-engage speaking with SkyWest and just reach out to their contacts and try to identify opportunities," Morgan said.

She said Delta Air Lines is in competition with Alaska Airlines, which could benefit Lewiston in restoring Seattle flights through Delta.

"I'm not promising you an overnight solution," she said. "I think it'd be really good to work with local community members, and I've got a pretty good idea of how to develop a Lewiston-Clarkston Valley air service development task force. We'll still need some help engaging the community to support it."

Morgan said competitive federal grants are available to help form and fund the task force.

She said the projected loss in landing fees from Horizon could reach up to $160,000 on top of the loss of $350,000 in estimated revenue from passenger fees on those flights. Morgan noted that the 2019 budget strings will be tightened but said the airport should be able to manage despite losing Horizon.

A grass-roots group has collected more than 1,000 signatures to try to convince Horizon to stay, an effort Horizon representatives have said is moot as discontinuing flights was purely a financial move.

Airport Board Chairman Bill McCann Jr. said the petition is counterproductive and may burn bridges with other airline services.

"Airlines work with people that they know," McCann said. "This slap in the face with a wet wash rag came as a shock, and everyone is concerned (referring to the Horizon decision), but it's no time to lay down. It's time to pick up and move on."

The board has repeatedly discussed retaining a lawyer to represent it, but Morgan informed board members Friday only one responded after she sent more than 30 letters to regional attorneys. No lawyer was chosen Friday, but Tom Callery reportedly told Morgan he will continue to represent the board until a new attorney can be found. Board member Jim Bennett suggested that, since the letters yielded few results, individual members touch base with lawyers in the area to informally discuss retention.

McCann adjourned the meeting and thanked the crowd of about 10 people who attended. But the gathering on the third floor of the airport devolved into shouting as the board began to leave.

A Friends of the Airport member yelled at board members, questioning why there was no public comment item on the special session agenda. Bennett noted special sessions rarely include public comment periods.

DeAnn Scrabeck insisted board members should address a situation she said was documented in a police report, involving alleged inappropriate behavior by an airport employee, which was handled internally. Board members tried to shout down Scrabeck, getting up to leave as the conversation turned caustic.

Morgan briskly left the room but came rushing back as voices continued to rise and told Scrabeck "you need to leave."

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Holm may be contacted at tholm@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2275. Follow him on Twitter @TomHolm4.