Airport to pay SkyWest $14,526 to help airline break even on Portland flights

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Story Published: Dec 24, 2008 at 6:17 PM PDT

By Kristina Nelson KCBY News

NORTH BEND, Ore. - The Coos County Airport District will pay SkyWest Airlines $14,526 to break even on flights between North Bend and Portland for the month of October.

The airline started service to Portland in October after Horizon Airlines left.

Coos County Airport District Chairman Mike Lehman says while ticket sales for the month of October weren't enough to break even, they were well above what the forecasted revenue was.

"Instead of having to pay about $40,000 which we thought we would have to do, it's actually close to $14,000. We're still adjusting to people using SkyWest. We also started up service at during the economic fallout which is certainly contributing," says Lehman.

Flights to Portland are running at about 59 to 60 percent of capacity, and need to be at least 66 percent of capacity for the airline to break even.

Lehman says January and February will be low months as well, but none of this news is a shock.

He says there are some things the airport and SkyWest are doing to boost sales, including looking into new marketing campaigns.

The $14,526 will come out of an airport district fund of $713,000, specifically designated for this exact situation.

Lehman says tickets sales for the North Bend to San Francisco flights are still looking strong.

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