VALLEY WON’T BE LEFT BEHIND

Injury-prone pro athletes say it. So do actors rebounding from a string of box-office clunkers. And politicians — usually those tending to some political catastrophe or other — say it. A lot.

“You focus on the things that you can control, and that’s what I’m doing,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — and countless others — once said.

As Arizonans ponder the economic fate of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport once US Airways departs for its new headquarters in Fort Worth, that observation becomes relevant to them, too.

Focus on what you can control.

Last week, two highly skilled business and airlineindustry reporters —

Ryan Randazzo and Dawn Gilbertson — coldly examined the promises airline executives have made to local officials following airline mergers.

What they learned should be sobering:

The avowals of departing airline executives may be heartfelt. They may mean what they say ... at the time. But in industries as competitive as the commercial airline business, good intentions often fall victim to market pressures.

While the departing US Airways has promised to retain Sky Harbor as an operations anchor and as an important travel hub, city officials should recall that other airline executives in strikingly similar circumstances made very similar promises, not all of which were kept. And they should prepare accordingly.

As Randazzo and Gilbertson explained in such fascinating detail, top execs overseeing the 2010 merger of United and Continental airlines assured Houston that relocating Continental’s headquarters to the merged airline’s new home in Chicago would not negatively impact the hub airport left behind in Texas. The same song was sung to Minnesotans when Delta and Northwest merged in 2008 and Northwest left its long-standing home in Minneapolis for Atlanta.

Reality proved more leavening than the press releases and the promises.

The inevitable cost-cutting that follows mergers meant fewer flights into the adversely affected airports. Huge and expensive airport expansion projects suddenly weren’t penciling out as they had before the hometown airline left town. Entire concourses in some airports were being closed off.

There are sound reasons to believe that fate will not befall Phoenix. Arizona will remain an important tourist destination, with or without a hometown airline. And it is well situated as a hub, especially for an enormous, worldwide airline like the new American, which may be looking to expand flights to Central and South America.

But it is reassuring that officials such as Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton are recognizing that in situations like the departure of US Airways, the only practical way forward is to take control of those things you can control.

Sky Harbor’s impressive attributes do not change when US Airways leaves. As Stanton observed in his State of the City speech last week, the invaluable Sky Train peoplemover system remains on track for a spring grand opening. Its highly professional management team remains unchanged. It was one of the most conveniently located airports in the country before US Airways opted to go to Fort Worth, and it still is.

The fate of Sky Harbor is anchored in its attributes, its value to the airline marketplace. The job of key officials like Stanton is to guard those assets jealously.

To focus on what you can control, as they say.