Roswell-DFW flights won’t be canceled

The City of Roswell, Chaves County and American Airlines reached an agreement Aug. 26 to keep air service intact between Dallas-Fort Worth and the Roswell International Air Center, according to Roswell Mayor Dennis Kintigh.

American Airlines announced on Aug. 20 flights would be grounded from Oct. 7 to Nov. 3 to 15 cities, including Roswell due to COVID-19, according to American Airlines spokeswoman Stacy Day.

“In the absence of an extension of the Payroll Support Program ... we’re faced with a host of difficult decisions to rightsize our airline, given the significant and sustained drop in demand we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Day said.

Kintigh said the City of Roswell got some help from Denver-based consulting firm Mead and Hunt to mediate the issue. During the conversation last week, Kintigh said all sides discussed revenue support.

He said American Airlines has more than 100 airplanes parked in Roswell for maintenance.

“The parking fee for the month of August is going to be around $53,000,” Kintigh said.

He said waiving the parking fees was an option that was discussed among Roswell city officials.

“Something like that would require some (Roswell City) Council action and City Manager action. We were actually working on trying to finalize that,” Kintigh said.

On Aug. 26, he said he got a phone call from American Airlines that the flights wouldn’t be suspended.

“We had not entered into an agreement yet and planning to have a proposal we would present (to the City Council) the next day. But, they went and eliminated the suspension for Roswell,” Kintigh said. “As far as we know we are the only one of the 15 cities they have done this for.”

Kintigh said about 20 American Airlines maintenance personnel work on the planes parked in Roswell.