Airport reveals $4M deal for Denver flights

The Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport Authority released its agreement with United Airlines for service to Denver for the first time Thursday, revealing a three-year deal that will send incentives of $4 million to the carrier.

Last week the Nez Perce County Commission agreed to fund a first-year payment to United of $1.75 million from its $7.8 million allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act. The airport will pay $1.25 million in the second year and $1 million in the third year, according to the agreement.

To date, the Lewiston City Council has declined to contribute any funding toward the United deal, but Airport Authority Board Chairman Gary Peters said the city has otherwise been “very supportive” of airport efforts to get new flights after Horizon Air left the facility in 2018.

County Commission Chairman Douglas Havens said he hopes the city will contribute in the second and third years. If not, Havens said the county is putting the balance of its ARPA funding aside to help fund the agreement.

“If the question is if the county will have the money, the county will have the money,” Havens said.

He also expressed hope that the airport will be solvent enough to make its own contribution in the second and third years. But, according to the contract, no airport revenues will be used for the subsidy because of Federal Aviation Administration restrictions.

Asked if making that size of a financial commitment will force the county to sacrifice other infrastructure projects, Havens noted that commissioners have also allocated $1 million from the federal funding toward a project to expand access to broadband internet countywide.

“You can always second-guess where you’re putting your money,” he said. “But the county doesn’t have a lot of infrastructure.”

Under the terms of the agreement, United will operate one or more daily round-trip flights to Denver with at least a 50-seat aircraft starting in October. United also asserts that it may change the schedule or aircraft at its discretion, and that the airport authority will have no right to make decisions regarding the operation of the flights.

“Without limiting the generality of the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, United agrees to use good faith efforts to consider (the airport authority’s) comments on issues related to marketing, pricing, ground handling and revenue management of the LWS Flights,” the agreement states.

Peters confirmed Thursday that the funding is an incentive that will be paid in total to United, as opposed to revenue guarantees that would simply pay the carrier for any empty seats on its flights and return any unused funds to the airport.

“It’s a very small price to pay for what will result in decades of real economic impact that will translate into hundreds of millions of dollars for our community,” Peters said.

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or at (208) 310-1901, ext. 2266.