Flights to Phoenix to continue with subsidies
Group says bookings are up, financial commitments will keep service through 2018
A community group that has raised money to help subsidize nonstop airline service from Santa Fe to Phoenix said the passenger load has been healthy over the past year, and the organization has plenty of financial commitments to fully support the service in 2018.
The once-a-day American Airlines flight into the Santa Fe Regional Airport and then back to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport started Dec. 17, 2016, with the promise that grant money from the state and federal governments, as well as private donations and local lodgers tax revenue, would pay for marketing and promoting the flight both in New Mexico and Arizona.
There also is an agreement with a private group working under the auspices of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce to pay American Airlines if the carrier falls short on the revenue it needs each quarter to make a profit from the 80-seat flight.
That organization, the Northern New Mexico Air Alliance, so far has paid American $130,000, said Stuart Kirk, the executive director of the group. Kirk expects there will be more payments for the slow months of November and December, but that the total subsidy amount will be under $200,000 by Dec. 31.
The organization has received financial contributions from private businesses and individuals, as well as Los Alamos County, Taos County, the Taos Ski Valley, and the city and county of Santa Fe.
“Our fundraising is going on,” Kirk said. “We still have money in the matching grants; we have strong plans to continue to market Santa Fe through the first quarter of the year.”
Paul Margetson, general manager of Hotel Santa Fe and an organizer of the alliance, said the flights have averaged 80 percent capacity and bookings for the first three months of 2018 are ahead of 2017.
“We’re running at 80 percent through October,” he said Tuesday, “and we’re running ahead of where we were a year ago.”
Kirk said there was a subsidy check paid out at the end of the first quarter for the new service when passengers still hadn’t heard about the flight or didn’t know Santa Fe had any commercial airline service.
“Our first effort was to get people even aware we had an airport in Santa Fe,” Kirk said.
The group helped create the Flysantafe.com website and promotional campaign that makes it easy to book tickets on the Phoenix flights, as well as American’s nonstop flights from Santa Fe to Dallas and United Airlines’ flights to Denver.
Having connections to all three hub cities in different directions has been a convenience for those who want to leave from Santa Fe without using the Albuquerque International Sunport.
Kirk said the price of direct flights to Phoenix is lower than ever, with a one-way ticket at or below $120 for the coming months. But the lower prices also increase the revenue guarantees that the alliance will have to pay out, he said.
A round trip from Santa Fe to Phoenix in mid-January was being booked at $124, less than the $129 it would cost to fly from Albuquerque. But if a passenger were to continue on to Los Angeles, there is no longer an advantage to leaving from Santa Fe, with round-trip fares starting at $482, compared with $188 from Albuquerque, as of Tuesday.
Those backing the nonstop service have said the flight will need to stand on its own — without support — after two years, or American is likely to reallocate the plane and its crew to other markets.
Farmington lost its last commercial flight Nov. 1 when Great Lakes Airlines said it was pulling its service from the city due to low demand and a pilot shortage.