Idaho air service committee meets for first time

A proposed added fee on car rentals to support the reintroduction of flights between Boise and other Idaho communities faces opposition.

Enterprise Car Rental is against the idea that was circulated during the last session of the Idaho Legislature, said Brody Aston, a lobbyist for the company.

“We’d have to oppose any effort that would seek to subsidize one industry by leveraging a tax on our customers,” he told the members of the Idaho Legislature’s intrastate commercial air service interim study committee Friday in Boise.

A $2 per-day fee could generate as much as $2 million per year, said Idaho Sen. Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston, co-chairman of the committee that was having its first meeting.

It would apply only to vehicles with nine or fewer passengers rented at airports for 14 days or less, he said.

Enterprise has a number of concerns about the idea, Aston said.

Like airlines, Enterprise serves travelers and it has experienced a decrease in customers because of the coronavirus.

The business already pays a 6 percent sales tax and 10 percent concession fees at Idaho airports, along with a 4 percent local option tax at the airport that serves Sun Valley, he said.

Plus, close to 60 percent of its customers are not traveling on airlines, Aston said. Some need a replacement car because the vehicle they own was in an accident or they could be renting a large minivan for a family trip.

“I don’t believe it would be fair,” he said.

The rental car fee is one of many ideas under consideration, said Johnson, who noted as many as 46 other states have similar fees.

“It’s something I think (that) warrants further discussion,” said Johnson, the only committee member to respond directly to Aston’s comments.

Aston’s remarks were part of a more than two-hour meeting devoted mostly to presentations by committee members who are considering hiring a consultant.

The speaker of the Idaho House and the president pro tem of the Idaho Senate would have to approve the expense and could draw on money already allocated for the operation of the Legislature, Johnson said.

The push to connect Boise to Lewiston, Idaho Falls and other Idaho communities by air faces a number of challenges, including convincing airlines that demand exists.

Lewiston-to-Boise flights typically ran about 80 percent full when Alaska Airlines’ Horizon Air flew a 52-seat aircraft on the route, said Gary Peters, a committee member and chairman of the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport Authority Board.

When Horizon Air shifted to a 76-passenger aircraft, the planes typically ran 56 percent full, below the airline’s target of 85 percent, Peters said.

“The demand between the Lewiston (and Moscow) area, it’s definitely there for the traffic to Boise if we just market those flights,” he said.

Plus, committee members could be in a place of trying to persuade airlines to add flights when they are struggling to maintain what they have after a drastic loss in passengers because of the coronavirus.

Alaska Airlines had expected 2020 to “be a year of expansive growth,” said Scott Kennedy, Alaska Airlines government affairs manager and a committee member.

“We announced that we were planning on purchasing about 200 new aircraft over the next 10 years,” he said.

Before the pandemic, Alaska Airlines, the fifth-largest domestic airline in the United States, flew 130,000 passengers a day. That dipped to a low of 5,000 a day in April and has since rebounded to 37,000 a day.

“We’ve seen a return, but we are seeing those numbers plateau and potentially even drop down a bit just as we’ve seen a resurgence in spikes (of COVID-19) across the country,” Kennedy said.

In coming months, the airline anticipates a 30 percent to 40 percent cut in its workforce, but hopes to bring many of them back in the summer of 2021, he said.

“The sooner that we can have a vaccine for (COVID-19) that is widely disseminated, the sooner that we can build passenger confidence in flying and traveling again,” Kennedy said.

The economic distress in the industry could make this a good time to expand flights within Idaho, Peters said.

Alaska Airlines’ Horizon Air, for instance, made stops in Walla Walla on its flights between Seattle and Pullman temporarily in May as a way to maintain that service when passenger numbers were at their lowest, he said.

Until now, airlines wouldn’t consider stopping at more than one town on their way to a final destination, an approach that has been suggested for the Idaho flights to Boise.

“We know the impact (COVID-19) has had on these airlines,” Peters said. “It’s staggering. ... (But) that’s when you help someone that you want to work with in the future, is when they’re having a hard time.”

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