Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Natrona County Passenger Increase
Nearly 30% more passengers flew out of Casper/Natrona County International Airport in July than did a year ago, airport officials reported Monday.
Casper Star Tribune, August 14, 2024.
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Crash in Campbell County.
A Pilatus PC-12/47E carrying three out of four members of the Grammy nominated and Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame Gospel music quartet the Nelons crashed north of Gillette. All seven passengers on board were killed.
Friday, July 26, 2024
City of Casper Councilmen grill Airport Board
This over withdrawing support for the subsidy payments for the flight to Salt Lake City. Casper complained it had received no notice of this occurring, and is concerned what it will mean.
Saturday, June 29, 2024
The Delta Blues*
In local and semi local news:
1. Last Saturday evening, a Delta Airlines 757 bound from Atlanta to Salt Lake City lost cabin pressure and had to land at the Natrona County International Airport.
2. On June 17the Casper/Natrona County International Airport Board of Directors notified the Fly Casper Alliance (FCA) that it voted to withdraw support for the minimum revenue guarantee which has kept SkyWest flying as the Delta Connection to Salt Lake. This will almost surely end commercial air service from Casper to SLC.
Footnotes
* The reference is to the type of blues associated with the Missippii Delta.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Thursday, April 11, 2024
“It stinks, like bad medicine going down, it’s a hard thing to swallow, but I think overall it is going to pay back 10-fold.”
So stated a Casper City Councilman about extending an additional $400,000 to SkyWest Delta to anchor the flight to Salt Lake City from Casper for at least a while.
I'm glad they did. I don't know if it stinks, but losing the flight certainly would.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Friday, March 1, 2024
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Challenging airport funding and looking at subsidization of transportation in a different light.
In an interview with Wyoming News Now, Casper Mayor Bruce Knell came out against providing subsidies to Sky West and went on to suggest that Wyoming had more airports than it needs. He specifically stated, regarding SkyWest
SkyWest is a 1.2-billion-dollar company. They absolutely should not receive any of taxpayers’ money … to help them with their business.
Knell also went on to accuse SkyWest of "feasting" off of the revenues and basically threatening the communities by indicating they may pull out.
And he went on to challenge the Minimum Revenue Guaranty concept, stating, according to Oil City News:
We need to do away with these MRGs statewide. The state needs to quit funding them. We need to do away with the airport in Gillette, in Rock Springs, in Evanston, in Sheridan, in Cody, in Riverton. They all need to go away. We need to have one international airport in Casper, and one airport in Jackson.
Not too surprisingly, the communities which Knell feels should lose an airport reacted. Officials from Sweetwater County wrote a letter in reply which stated.
The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport is a critical economic driver for Southwest Wyoming, supporting over $36.9 million in annual economic activity including $25.5 million in annual spending and 324 jobs resulting in $11.4 million in annual payroll,” the letter states. “Much like your local airport, our airport provides critical connectivity to the global economy for dozens of commercial and industrial employers in Southwest Wyoming while also providing residents connectivity to healthcare, friends, family and leisure destinations, improving the overall quality of life for our workforce.
While you may be willing to risk your local economy’s vitality, we are not. Our airport and its air service are foundationally critical assets to our community.
Casper's mayor, it should be noted, serves in a different capacity than those of most cities and towns, and accordingly is not elected as mayor, but appointed to that position by other councilmen. This is not to say that it's wholly influential, however.
As for doing away with airports, it's hard to imagine any of these airports going away. The real question is whether they shall continue to have commercial air service. Knell's view seems to be that if they didn't have regional service to Denver and Salt Lake, that would mean that the Casper and Jackson airports would succeed by default, something that's not really clear.
FWIW, at one time or another I've been in planes that landed at every one of these airports, although I've only been on regular commercial flights to Casper. Having said that, I've known people to take commercial flights into Jackson, Cody, Riverton and Rock Springs, and I've never heard any complaints about those flights. Being able to fly regionally, and with much greater access than currently exists, is something that outside business entities often ask about.
Knell's overall point is that he feels that the free market should take care of all of this. The truth of the matter is, however, that only rail transportation isn't subsidized in the U.S. Highway transportation is heavily subsidized by taxes, which fund the roads, various transportation departments, and specialized police forces. Air transportation is subsidized by the creation and maintenance of airports, and the maintaining of the TSA and FAA.
Given that, we might really wish to ask the question of what transportation we wish to subsidize and in what amounts, assuming we wish to subsidize any, and of course we do. Nobody is going to suggest we abolish highway funding, for example. So the real question is what is most efficient, socially productive and serves our long term goals.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Skywest to receive additional subsidy payment
If SkyWest, the Delta provider, does not find that this makes the run more popular, it'll likely be cut, and air travel to Salt Lake will end.
NASA Opens Some UFO Files to Public
This was in its first public meeting.
I'm underwhelmed by this story. In a world in which technology is getting so advanced that our own creation that we should avoid making, AK, will probably end us, these are almost certain many made.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Fly Casper Alliance lobbies for city subsidy.
A new Natrona County Advocacy Group, Fly Casper Alliance, is seeking $50,000 from the City of Casper to help secure the present Delta (Sky West) flight to Salt Lake City. The flight already receives subsidies from Natrona County, but this one time payment is hoped to help continue to secure the flight.
Related thread:
Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Friday, February 17, 2023
Failed Balloon Run
It's now known that the U.S. Air Force did attempt to shoot down the Chinese balloon over Montana, using the F-22's cannons as the intended weapon, but the balloon exceeded the height at which the fighter could operate.