The Leavenworth City Council has pledged $5,000 toward a service expansion at Pangborn Memorial Airport, which seeks to bring direct flights to and from the San Francisco area.
“They Port of Chelan County is trying to expand the airport flight service at Pangborn Airport,” said City Administrator Joel Walinski at the June 6 city council meeting. “One of things they are looking for is this Air Service Investment Program, which provides some guarantee of coverage of operating losses for a aircraft company that would come in there and offer flight service.”
This is important for the city in terms of opening up another area for tourism, bringing in people from the Bay area, Walinski noted.
To date, the Port has collected $285,000. The city of Wenatchee pledged $10,000, East Wenatchee $5,000. Plus, there are some fairly large private firms that have given significant donations. Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar said there are a number of individuals who have donated.
“It turns out there are two men that live in Leavenworth who work in the Bay area in the tech industry. They’ve each given $10,000. They want so badly to fly from Wenatchee to their workplace and not have to change planes. There is some real use,” Farivar said. “It is a pledge. We don’t have to come up with the cash.”
Councilwoman Sharon Waters suggested pledging $2,500, noting that East Wenatchee pledged $5,000. Councilwoman Mia Bretz said East Wenatchee doesn’t care about bringing people in, but Leavenworth does. She thought $5,000 was good.
“I think $5,000 is good. If the service is able to maintain itself, I think people doing business in Wenatchee are going to come up here,” said Councilman Rich Brinkman.
Bretz wondered if the Leavenworth Chamber would do more outreach in the Bay area. Farivar said the Chamber wants to spend, not the flight pledge, but on actual outreach. She said the chamber wants to advertise in the in-flight magazine.
“I think the chamber needs to advertise at Pangborn. It is great to advertise in the Bay area, but it needs to be at Pangborn,” said Councilwoman Gretchen Wearne.
Councilman Elmer Larsen said there needs to be rental cars available for people to drive from the airport to Leavenworth. Farivar said there are rental cars, but it is more touch-and-go.
“I experienced this for my wedding. It was more expensive for people to rent from Pangborn to Leavenworth than it was from Seattle to Leavenworth,” Wearne said.
Larsen said this opens up opportunities for overnight lodging.
“If somebody comes from the Bay area, they are not coming for just one day. We stand to gain quite a bit from that. The chamber wants to focus their advertising down there,” Larsen said.
If the Port raises $400,000 in pledges, they will qualify for a federal program to receive $800,000, so they would have $1.2 million, Walinski said.
“As time goes by, the first month, the carrier service loses $100,000, so then $100,000 would come out of that $1.2 million,” Walinski said. “After that, for the next two years, the aircraft service makes money or breaks even, then the $1.1 million gets redistributed based on the ratio of funds that were put in. In that case, the city would receive slightly less than $5,000 back.”
In essence, this is a pledge that the city will support this air service, Farivar said.
“If the carrier is immediately successful, all the money would come back to us. However, if the carrier is unsuccessful, and abandons this route, none of us would get our money back,” Farivar said.
Bretz said she’s interested in the opportunities it opens up at an international hub airport. Councilwoman Carolyn Wilson said this will really open up the number of tourists coming to town.
The council voted 6-1 to pledge $5,000 with Waters voting against.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.
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