The City of Las Cruces has announced that they will stop subsidizing air travel to Albuquerque from the Las Cruces airport. KRWG multimedia reporter Noah Raess spoke with Mandy Leatherwood from The City of Las Cruces to learn more.
Noah Raess:
How will the end of these subsidies affect the airport as a whole?
Mandy Leatherwood:
So as we sent out in our news release, the subsidies were for commercial air passengers to Albuquerque and so in the month of June, we went to a reduced service and at the end of June, that service will end.
Noah Raess:
As a whole, how much of the airport's function kind of functioned around that flight to Albuquerque and how many less people are going to be heading out to the airport now that that subsidy has ended.
Mandy Leatherwood:
So overall, that function at the airport is about 3% of our operations. So it's a very small portion of what our airport does. And I think we had like six passengers and so it's a very small number that will be impacted by this change.
Noah Raess:
That kind of gets into my next question. There was, In the press release, an average of six passengers per flight. But also in the press release, you guys said that you hope to expand more flights in the future to places like Phoenix. I guess, do you guys have a plan for how to expand how many people are on those flights and kind of expand those flights?
Mandy Leatherwood:
Yes. So, as this funding right now in this contract ended, it gave us the opportunity to now look at what makes the most sense. And so we will be doing an RFP, for air service so that it will be a contract with the city of Las Cruces. Not something that we're tied into another contract that could end, and we're looking at the potential of Phoenix for a couple of reasons. It's a much larger metropolitan area, and it would make connecting flights to Phoenix easier and faster. And then if we had a larger aircraft to Phoenix, it would give us the opportunity to carry more passengers, more cargo, and then generate more revenue per flight, which would reduce the dependency on the state and city subsidies while also being a positive for our customers.
Noah Raess:
And in the press release, you guys also mentioned going after different grants, and stuff as well. Can you explain kind of what those grants are and what they're kind of used for?
Mandy Leatherwood:
So it's actually one grant, and so it's the state grant. The Rural Air Service grant, and that's the one we have been using, and that's the one that we've used up all the funds and so that's what we will apply for and usually that funding becomes available in the fall. And so that's sort of the timeline we're looking at for that funding to be renewed.
Noah Raess:
That kind of gets into my next question too. I was wondering what a path forward for the airport looks like and, I guess you guys have a timeline for any new flights or anything else at the airport?
Mandy Leatherwood:
For the passenger service, the passport. You know, we'll put out this RFP, and then we'll be looking at the potential to move to Phoenix so that that or to provide service to Phoenix. That would be our goal. That's a small part of what the airport does. And so actually, Blake was just telling us that they had their FAA inspection this week, which went really well, and we passed it and we hopefully will get the official letter next week. So we'll be sending out more good news from the airport. So there's different things happening here that are also beyond the commercial service.
Noah Raess:
This kind of gets into but Phoenix was mentioned in the press release, they you guys also talked about maybe bringing back the Albuquerque route. I guess, are there any other routes that you guys are looking into that may be getting added?
Mandy Leatherwood:
I think we would start with Phoenix and then we could reassess it at a later date to see what is working and what is not.
