January 08, 2008 05:31 am
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Well, it looks as if the sky isn't falling, after all.
Big Sky Airlines took a precipitous fall from North Country grace, shutting down its operation and putting its aircraft up for sale. Air service in the region appears to stand a very good chance to survive, however.
Big Sky, in business for two months in Plattsburgh, Saranac Lake, Massena and Ogdensburg, folded, citing poor weather and high fuel costs. The interesting aspect of this is that Big Sky's headquarters and history are in Montana. It isn't exactly beach weather there, either, and fuel costs can't be any lower there than here.
Actually, in truth, Big Sky was beginning to give local airports a bad name. This newspaper received many complaints from customers who had been left short of service by delayed or canceled flights. One woman we know had flown from Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake enroute to Boston but had been stranded in Saranac Lake because the leg to the coast was canceled. To Big Sky's credit, it arranged a car and driver to take her the rest of the way, but this was hardly the service she'd expected when she boarded in Plattsburgh.
We wondered in print last week what the next step would be for local officials suddenly left without air service for its constituency. Would one misstep spell doom for air service altogether? Some local people, who had predicted that airplanes would never fly regularly out of Plattsburgh International, were sporting wry smiles. Prematurely, it appears.
The Clinton County Legislature's Airport Committee chairman, Robert Heins, and Airport Manager Chris Kreig indicated to the Press-Republican's Editorial Board Thursday that Big Sky's failure may be a godsend, in that it opens the way for a more responsible and reliable provider.
Cape Air out of Cape Cod is one of three airlines being heard on the matter of flying into and out of the North Country. Cape Air is another regional airline, like Big Sky, with connections to a larger airline in Boston -- Jet Blue -- so Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake would have access to airports throughout the United States and the world.
On top of that, all North Country airports are involved in what is called Essential Air Service -- with capital letters. That is a specific program by which airlines are subsidized by the federal government to provide coverage that won't pay for itself with customers alone.
Heins and Kreig believe that, based on the market available -- including Quebec -- as well as what Big Sky was doing while here that Plattsburgh can eventually be weaned off Essential Air Service status and stand on its own.
At this point, there is no way of foreseeing whether this prediction is viable. In fact, predicting what air service will be in any form is an adventure. But we do know this: Big Sky's retreat is not the end of air service in Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake -- far from it.
Allegiant continues to thrive in the charter business, with 1,700 boardings in two months, more than at the old Clinton County Airport in a year. The rest still shows promise.
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