Stockton to L.A. -- will it fly?
Air carriers reportedly willing to try

RecordNet.com - June 16, 2003

Passenger air service between Stockton and Los Angeles -- it's just right on so many levels. That appears to be a common sentiment not only for people who live in the San Joaquin County region, but L.A. residents who have family or business connections in this area.

People such as Ann Quinn, a longtime Stockton resident when she worked for Stockton developer Fritz Grupe, then as a Lincoln High School administrator, and then, of late, an executive again for The Grupe Co. Two weeks ago, she moved to Los Angles to be close to her daughter and her four-month-old granddaughter. Quinn's new special-projects post with Grupe calls mostly for telecommuting, but there will be at least monthly trips to Stockton.

So Quinn is hoping that an airline consultant just hired by San Joaquin County can deliver passenger service from a major airline between Stockton and Los Angeles -- the first such service in years.

"I still have family here and many friends, so for me to have direct flights to the Stockton airport would just be a godsend," she said. And people such as Robert Baxter, who graduated from University of the Pacific in 1989. Those were the days of airline-industry regulation when the Stockton Metropolitan Airport had a thriving mix of passenger air service.

So far as traveling between Stockton and Los Angeles went, well, "I took it for granted," said Baxter, now a salesman in Los Angeles for a computer scanner company.

Baxter sits on the UOP Alumni Association board of directors and makes a half dozen trips each year to Stockton in that role.

That means flying into a regional airport and adding an hour or two of driving time to Stockton. Plus, if there is an evening event involved, it also means taking a much earlier flight in order to make it to UOP on time, he said.

"If you value your time more than money, it does cost more," he said. "It's just an inconvenience that it would be nice not to deal with."

Then there's Randy Graff, a Delta Airlines pilot who flies to this area to visit his mother in Oakdale. He comes in on the only flights into Stockton --America West via its Phoenix hub -- and that's a natural route from his Scottsdale, Ariz., home. He finds it strange, though, that the only avenue to a major metro area such as Stockton is via a single airline connecting through Phoenix.

"We (Delta) go to markets like Billings, Montana and Kalispell, and they don't have anywhere near the population of Stockton."

L.A./Stockton service would open up travel options he would like to have, Graff said. After five years of not having any passenger air service in Stockton, the city got one airline, America West, which offers daily connections to Phoenix.

Since America West service began more than two years ago with three round-trip flights per day, though, the flight schedule has shrunk to two. Then recently, America West said it would pare Stockton service to one daily round-trip flight as of June 21.

But the community is again organizing to improve service, this time aiming for an oft-talked-about target: Los Angeles.

San Joaquin County supervisors last week approved a contract with a Colorado consultant specializing in drawing new passenger air service to underserved communities.

Kent Myers, president of Airplanners LLC, said three airlines already have expressed interest in establishing Stockton-L.A. service, although that likely will entail community travel pledges of the type that drew America West to Stockton.

In that deal, the community pledged $800,000 in financial incentives to America West to launch Stockton service. That included $500,000 in advance travel-voucher purchases and $100,000 for an America West marketing representative for the Stockton market.

Big questions remain: Are there enough people both here and in Los Angeles to support a new airline in the Stockton market? Are there enough individuals, businesses and government entities in the community willing to provide the financial incentives that could be needed to attract a new airline?

No doubt, said Ron Addington, executive director of the Business Council of San Joaquin County.

"If you polled everybody who invested in America West, their need to go to Los Angeles is probably 10 times as great," he said. "I think the prospects are very strong right now."

Barry Rondinella, Stockton Metropolitan Airport director, said community support remains for a unified effort to attract service to Los Angeles.

The need is great for such service, he said. Plus, this time around, there will be changes in the community's relationship with any new airline.

While America West pretty much set the conditions of coming into the market, he said, any new relationship would entail a definitive contract with the carrier that ensured a certain level of service, marketing campaigns and feedback to the community.

Plus, Rondinella said he knows that some who bought America West travel vouchers were unable to take advantage of Internet travel specials.

That's clearly not acceptable, he said.

"From my perspective, we need more service," said Steve Carrigan, Stockton's economic-development director. "That's a no-brainer. I think Stockton, with a metro area of 350,000 to 450,000 population, warrants it. It's really surprising to me that we'll only have one flight a day going out of our airport. That's shameful."

Myers said he is confident that an airline will want to launch Stockton/Los Angeles service, especially if there's a strong community commitment.

His firm has done such work successfully in other communities.

Gunnison County is a ski-resort destination nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains, 8,000 feet in elevation and about 220 miles southwest of Denver. Population: 14,000. Annual visitors: 1 million. Airlines providing passenger service: three.

"And we're not easy to get to," said Gunnison County Manager John DeVore.

A crucial reason that the community has passenger air service, DeVore said, is Airplanners, which the county contracted with in March 2000.

Airplanners first lined up winter-season passenger service with United Express between Denver last season, then set up another deal with Continental for flights between Houston for the summer season, and then there's another a winter-season deal with Delta for service between Dallas.

The county and business community felt it needed to go with specialists who had relationships with airlines and spoke the lingo of the industry, DeVore said.

"We were babes in the woods," he said. "We didn't know what we were doing in terms of trying to attract airlines business. It was critical to get somebody who knew them. ... They (Airplanners) know their business."

Previous passenger air service evaporated last year when the local ski company decided it couldn't afford to carry deals with airlines, he said.

The Gunnison County/Crested Butte community then had to commit financially to get air service rolling.

It did so with voter approval of a sales-tax increase as well as levy a 4 percent lodging tax in order to provide $900,000 in airline incentives and another $1.2 million to cover marketing, DeVore said.

Airplanners remains involved in managing the air services, including providing monthly passenger load reports and marketing sessions. DeVore gives the firm high marks on that as well.

Next month, for example, he will go to Houston with Airplanners representatives to work with Continental Airlines on several issues that have come up, he said.

"We recognize we can't just sign a contract and walk away from it."

By Bruce Spence
Record Staff Writer

* To reach reporter Bruce Spence, phone (209) 943-8581.