City willing to provide funds for flights

The city of Lewiston is poised to dig into its reserves to preserve nonstop, commercial passenger flights between Lewiston and Denver on United Airlines.

Lewiston’s city council voted Thursday to have its legal team write a minimum revenue guarantee agreement worth a maximum of $4.08 million for a year for the airline.

The council plans to make a final decision on the agreement at its Jan. 29 meeting or sooner if the document is ready earlier.

The city of Lewiston money would be an investment in the economic health of the community, said Councilor Kassee Forsmann.

The town’s largest employers include manufacturers that rely on flights to bring their clients to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, she said.

“We talk about being business friendly and property taxes,” Forsmann said. “They contribute a lot to the city of Lewiston. … It would be a shame if we just completely didn’t care about the state of the airport … and then (they would have to) find other ways to utilize those services.”

The council’s vote followed a joint meeting Tuesday between the council, the Nez Perce County Commission and the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport Authority board.

At that meeting, Airport Director Michael Isaacs told officials that United Airlines lost $5.5 million in 2023 on its Denver-Lewiston flights.

Without the minimum revenue guarantee agreement, United Airlines plans to discontinue the flights that were introduced in 2021, he said.

United Airlines wants a decision about the agreement by the end of this month, Isaacs said at that meeting.

How much the city of Lewiston would pay would depend on how full each flight was. If flights were 65% full, the subsidy would be $2.95 million for the year, while if they were 85% full, the subsidy would be $618,715, according to information presented at the Tuesday meeting.

The flights were 87% full in the spring, fall and winter and 60% full in the summer in 2023, according to Isaac’s presentation.

Those numbers are expected to climb because of provisions in the draft agreement. The 50-seat jets United flies on the route can only carry 37 passengers if the temperature is 90 degrees or higher.

The flights arrive and depart midday when temperatures are warmer. That timing also makes it difficult for passengers to catch Denver flights to other destinations.

A new schedule that would be part of the revenue guarantee agreement would move the departure from Lewiston to Denver to the first thing in the morning and shift the arrival to Lewiston from Denver into the evening.

That will limit instances where passengers have to be pulled from flights because of high temperatures and make it easier for passengers to make connecting flights at Denver to other destinations.

“With all respect, I don’t think (the city councilors and me) are going to move the contract,” said Mayor Dan Johnson. “I think United is probably going to tell us this is the way it is and we like it or we don’t. … We just have to kind of trust that they’re a good operator and they’re going to keep going.”

Airport board chairman Gary Peters agreed with what Johnson said, noting it took a significant amount of back and forth between United and airport officials to reach the preliminary terms for the proposed minimum revenue share agreement.

The city of Lewiston and Nez Perce County own the airport. Airport officials called on the city of Lewiston to provide the money for the minimum revenue share agreement because Nez Perce County contributed $4 million over three years as part of a deal for United to introduce the flights in 2021.

The proposed minimum revenue guarantee agreement as well as the $4 million are in addition to about $550,000 each the city and county are giving to the airport this fiscal year for annual operations.

United is one of two airlines that serve the Lewiston airport. Delta has nonstop service to Seattle and Salt Lake City.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.