Summer Flights Land in County Airport

VAIL DAILY - June 15, 2003

Gwen Baum couldn't decide Saturday whether to pick up her luggage or drink Champagne and eat cheese at the Eagle County Regional Airport. Baum, of New York City, was among the 100 passengers - the plane has capacity for 176 - who arrived on the first direct daily summer flight from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to Eagle.

Most passengers were surprised when they walked down the American Airlines Boeing 757 and they were greeted by Helmut Fricker, who played his alphorn and accordion, and by county Commissioner Tom Stone.

"This is a great community. I can't believe this reception," said Baum, who came to spend some time with friends in Edwards. "This direct flight from Dallas made it really convenient coming from New York. It's so nice to be in this weather it was raining in New York."

It was sunny and 78 degree when the plane landed at 5:45 p.m.

As passengers entered in the terminal, they also got goody bags with sunscreen, a bottle of water, an Eagle County mug and pins.

"This new direct flight just makes it so easy," said Hally Kaplan, a second-home owner from Costa Rica, who came to spend some time with her children at their Cordillera house. "This flight cuts three hours from the trip."

Community work

Saturday's flight, the first one of the "Fly Vail Summer program", landed in Eagle County nine months after Kent Myers of Airplanners LLC. presented the idea to the county commissioners.

"Once the community gets together something like this happens. We appreciate the support of the government and local businesses, " Myers said Saturday as he waited on the tarmac for the plane to arrive.

To offer the summer service, American Airlines requested $475,000 in guaranteed money. Those pledging towards the guarantee included: Eagle County; East-West Partners; the Vail Valley Jet Center; Vail Resorts; the town of Gypsum; the town of Avon; the town of Vail; Beaver Creek Resort Company; Beaver Creek Resort merchants; Cordillera; Sonnenalp Resort of Vail; Slifer; Smith and Frampton and Dollar Rent A Car.

"In a downward economy, we needed to do something to help stimulate the economy locally," Tom Stone said. "And this will serve the purpose."

The "Fly Vail Summer program" will run through Sept. 3. The flights will carry 176 passengers inbound and 160 outbound.

"The reservations numbers are looking strong," Myers said. Of the 14,000 seats available through Sept. 3, more than 5,000 are already booked," Myers said.

"The current trend in the tourism industry is that people are booking closer into the departure date." To break even, Myers said there has to be a 65 percent load by teh end of the summer.

"We're gaining momentum," he said. "Everybody wants to know if we're going to break even. And this is a very complicated formula. It creates some anxiety, but it appears the marketing is working. The booking is increasing. In the week ending June 8, we booked 947 seats. That is already 8 percent of the total available seats.

"What will happen is that these people will go back and talk about the flight," he added.

Becoming regional

The trend of the Eagle County Regional Airport is it's finally becoming "regional", Myers said.

The county airport is strategically located one and a half hour from Aspen, 30 minutes from Beaver Creek and Vail and one and a half hour to Steamboat Springs.

"In the winter about 20 percent of the people going to Aspen fly through this airport," Myers said.

"Now, with this program we're the only market that serves Dallas and the only airport that gets a 757," he added.

American Airlines' Dallas-Fort Worth hub will connect travelers from Eagle County within 50 minutes with 28 cities in the United States including, Boston, New York, Orlando, Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta, as well as Zurich, Switzerland.

"This is an exciting moment," Stone said minutes before the plane landed. "This is the county taking the lead with direct economic development."

Eagle County not only pledged the highest amount for the guarantee with $250,000, but also is the full responsible for the $450,000, in case some of the partners fall through.

"It's a financial commitment, but we thought it was worthy," Stone said. "Transportation has always been one of the key elements of a thriving economy. People can come easily and those living here can access the rest of the world easily."

Edwards' second-home owner Margaret Gilbert lives in Dallas and also arrived in the flight Saturday.

"I plan to fly into the airport every other weekend," she said. "They're already running good specials."

Digging in the fruit and cheese plates by the baggage claim, 10-year-old Devin Root said he was taken by surprise by the welcoming.

"I didn't expect a music performer and cantaloupe," he said with a mouthful of fruit. "I've never been in an airport like this."