Should this be the fate of most of Wyoming's airports?
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.
We don't tend to post original commentary on this blog, but on our others, but given the topics, it's appropriate here.
And this will be a dual post, appearing on both Railhead and The Aerodrome simultaneously.
Like some, as in all, of our reflection posts that have gone up on our companion blogs, this entry is impacted by COVID 19, as everything is.
It's also heavily impacted by politics.
And of course, COVID 19 itself has become strangely political.
The onset of the terrible pandemic shut down nearly every economy in the world, save for those in areas with economies so underdeveloped that they couldn't shut down. That impacted the world's transportation networks in a major way, and it still is. COVID 19 also became a factor in the last election, with a large section of the American public becoming extremely unhappy with the Trump Administration's response to the pandemic. Added to the mix, heightened concerns over global warming have finally started to accelerate an American response to the threat.
All of which gets us to transportation, the topic of these blogs in some ways.
For at least a decade, it's been obvious that electric automobile are going to replace fossil fuel powered ones. There are, of course, deniers, but the die is cast and that's where things will go.
It's also become obvious that technology is going to take truck driver out of their seats, and put a few, albeit a very few, in automated offices elsewhere where they'll monitor remote fleets of trucks. Or at least that's the thought.
The Biden Administration, moreover, included money for railroads in is large infrastructure bill. This has developed in various ways, but the big emphasis has been on expanding Amtrak.
I have real problems, I'll admit, with the scope of the proposed infrastructure spending proposals that President Biden is looking at, but if they go forward, I really hope we do see rail service restored (and that's what it would be) between Cheyenne and Denver.
The plan proposes to invest $80B in Amtrak. Yes, $80B. Most of that will go to repairs, believe it or not, as the Amtrak has never been a favorite of the Republican Party, which in its heard of hearts feels that the quasi public rail line is simply a way of preserving an obsolete mode of transportation at the Government's expense. But rail has been receiving a lot of attention recently for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that in a now carbon conscious era, it's the greenest mode of transportation taht we have, something the commercial rail lines have been emphasizing.
Indeed, if the American public wasn't afraid of a nuclear power the same way that four year olds are afraid of monsters that live under their beds, it could be greener yet, and there's some talk of now supporting nuclear power among serious informed environmentalists. A campaign to push that, called the Solutionary Rail, is now active. We'll deal with that some other time.
Here we're noting that we're hopeful that if this does go through, and as noted we have real reservations about this level of expenditure, that Amtrak does put in a passenger line from Cheyenne to Pueblo.
A line connecting Ft. Collins to Denver has been a proposal in Colorado for quite a while and has some backing there. The same line of thought has already included Cheyenne. This has a lot to do with trying to ease the burgeoning traffic problem this area experiences due to the massive population growth in Colorado. Wyomingites, I suppose, should therefore approach this with some caution as it would tie us into the Front Range communities in a way that we might not want to be. Still, it's an interesting idea.
It's one that for some reason I think will fall through, and I also suspect it'll receive no support in Wyoming. Still, it's interesting.
During the past year, locally, flights to Casper were put in jeopardy. This was a byproduct of COVID 19, as air travel dropped off to nearly nothing, nationwide, and that made short flights economically iffy.
Before the pandemic, Delta had cut back its flight schedule to Salt Lake, which is a major Delta hub. This caused its bookings to drop down anyway. I used to fly to Salt Lake in the morning, pre COVID, do business, and then fly back that evening. Once Delta cuts its flights back, however, that became impossible.
That meant that Delta, at that point, had aced itself out of the day trip business market, which it seemingly remains unaware of for some reason. COVID hurt things further. At that point it threatened to abandon its service unless it could receive some assistance. The county and the local municipalities rose to the occasion.
I'm really not too certain what my view on this is. Overall, I suppose it's a good thing.
Delta is one of the two carriers, relying on regional contractors, serving the Natrona County International Airport, and hence all of Central Wyoming. It flies to and from Salt Lake, while United flies to and from Denver.
It used to have great connections. A businessman in Casper could take the red eye to Salt Lake and then catch the late flight back. That's no longer possible Frankly, depending upon what you're doing, it's nearly as easy to drive to Salt Lake now.
And perhaps that's cutting into their passenger list, along with COVID 19, although I'm told that flights have been full recently.
Anyhow, losing Delta would be a disaster. We'd be down to just United. Not only would that mean that there was no competition, it'd place us in a shaky position, maybe, as the overall viability of air travel starts to reduce once a carrier pulls out.
A couple of legislatures ago there was an effort to subsidize intrastate air travel, and I think it passed. While Wyomingites howl about "socialism", as we loosely and fairly inaccurately describe it, we're hugely okay with transportation being subsidized. We likely need to be, or it'll cut us off from the rest of everything more than we already are, and that has a certain domino effect.
I don't know what the overall solution to this problem is, assuming there is one, but whatever it is, subsidies appear likely to be part of it for the immediate future . . . and maybe there are some avenues open there we aren't pursuing and should be.
At the same time, infrastructure money became available for the state's airports as well.
The Federal funds can be used for terminals, runways and parking lots and the like.
Of Wyoming airports, Jackson's will get the most, receiving $3.38M. Natrona County International Airport gets the second-largest amount at $1.34M. Natrona County's airport will use the funds for electrical work.
So flights were kept and improvements will be made.
Recently, pilot pay has been tripled, albeit only for one month.
This due to an ongoing pilot shortage, which has been heightened by the Omicron variant of COVID 19.
I.e, United is trying to fill the pilot seats this month.
So, that's what happened.
Now, what might we hope will happen?
1. Electric Avenue
Everything always seem really difficult until its done, and then not so much.
Which doesn't discount difficulty.
The Transcontinental Railraod was created in the US through the American System, something that's been largely forgotten. Private railroads didn't leap at the chance to put in thousands of miles of rail line across uninhabited territory. No, the Federal Government caused the rail line to come about by providing thousands of acres of valuable land to two start up companies and then guarding the workers with the Army, at taxpayer expense.
We note that as, right now, railroad are already the "greenest" means of transportation in the US. They could be made more so by electrifying them, just as the Trans Siberian Railway is. At the same time, if a program to rapidly convert energy production in the US to nuclear was engaged in, the US transportation system could be made basically "green" in very little time. Probably five years or less.
If we intend to "build back better", we ought to do that.
This would, I'd note, largely shift long transportation back to its pre 1960s state. Mostly by rail. Trucking came in because the US decided, particularly during the Eisenhower Administration, to subsidize massive coast to coast highways.
For the most part, we no longer really need them.
Oh, we need highways, but with advances in technology of all sorts, we need them a lot less than we once did. And frankly, we never really needed them way that the Federal Government maintained we did. It's been a huge financial burden on the taxpayers, and its subsidized one industry over another.
Yes, this is radical, but we should do it.
Now, before a person either get too romantic, or too weepy, over this, a couple of things.
One is that we already have an 80,000 teamster shortage for trucking. I.e., yes, this plan would put a lot of drivers out of work, but its a dying occupation anyway. Indeed, in recent years its become on that is oddly increasingly filled with Eastern Europeans who seemingly take it up as its a job they can occupy with little training. The age of the old burly American double shifting teamster is long over.
And to the extent it isn't, automated trucks are about to make it that way for everyone.
The trains, we'd note, will be automated too. It's inevitable. They'll be operated like giant train sets from a central location. Something that's frankly easier, and safer, to do, than it would be for semi tractors.
2. Subsidized local air travel
It's going to take longer to electrify aircraft, particularly those that haul people, but electrification of light aircraft is already being worked on. The Air Force has, moreover, been working on alternative jet fuels.
Anyhow, if we must subsidize something in long distance transportation, that should be local air travel. Its safe, effective and vital for local economies. I don't care if that is quasi socialist. It should be done.
3. The abandoned runways.
Locally, I'd like to see some of that infrastructure money go to the extra runway or runways at the NatCo airport being repaired. I know that they were little used, but they're there.
