Capacity Purchase Program Could Help Airports
Written by Andrew-Rossi on January 9, 2018
The state of Wyoming may be able to save local airports money – and ensure essential air service – without help from the Federal government.
At a gathering in the Cody Club Room yesterday, the director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Bill Panos, addressed a crowd of elected and appointed officials, business owners, and members of the local airport board regarding a new program that could benefit not only local air service, but the airlines as well.
The state’s Aeronautics Director, Amy Surdam, pointed out that the funding from the state’s Air Service Enhancement Program has been cut – which means that after the next fiscal year, there will only be $1.5 million dollars available to assist all the airports in the state, which won’t be enough to cover all the requests. This could result in airports being shut down in communities that don’t have assistance from the federal government.
The answer, Panos says, is in a capacity purchase program, which would put the state in a position to purchase seats in bulk from air service carriers for the next ten years on behalf of the local communities. The program, which would be funded by the ENDOW initiative, would save the state millions of dollars, while providing more stable air service to the entire state.
If approved by the legislature, the new policy would be in place by July 1st of 2019.
