Cache airport seeking funds for commercial air service
A committee formed by the airport's authority board plans to seek donations of $700,000 to $900,000 in cash to be part of a $1.2 million incentive package to entice an airline to serve the area.
Airport director Richard Stehmeier said Thursday that the money would be available to help an airline with starting ser- vice. The remainder of the incentive package would be from the airport, in the form of marketing or guaranteeing ticket sales.
"When airlines are looking for risk-sharing, they usually look for up to $900,000," Stehmeier said. "That risk-sharing is for when an airline comes in and if, over first four to six months, they are not making money yet, then we share that risk."
The committee, led by Brent Miller, vice president for research at Utah State University, and Bruce Bishop of USU's College of Engineering will seek contributions from throughout the private sector, the airport authority board itself, USU and individuals, he said.
The incentives could be ready to present to airlines in March. "We could get lucky and raise it in a short period of time. I know they're pushing hard over the next couple of months to put together some kind of a package," Stehmeier said.
Frontier Airlines representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
Stehmeier said Lynx would use 74-seat Bombardier aircraft for twice-daily round-trip flights to Denver. But he stressed that the incentive package would be available for any airline.
"We're not putting all our eggs in one basket," he said. "We're definitely looking at other airlines, but Frontier put out an RFP (request for proposals) about a year ago, looking for airports to go into within about a 600-mile range of Denver."
Logan-Cache Airport had commercial service briefly in the 1970s, with one airline flying into Boise and another offering service to Salt Lake City, he said. But in the past several years, the authority has used about $10 million to lengthen the airport runway, update security and secure fire-suppression equipment, all in hopes of restarting commercial service. At 9,100 feet, the runway is the second-longest in the state, Stehmeier said.
If the fund-raising is successful, flights could begin by year-end, he added.
"Our plan is to make sure the airport is ready when they come and when they decide to come. We raise the money, we go out, and we find the airline who says they want to come. We want to be ready for them, regardless of who it is," he said.
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