Almost 150 years ago, newspaper mogul Horace Greeley urged readers to “Go west, young man.”

At age 58, Golden Triangle Regional Airport Director Mike Hainsey doesn’t consider himself a young man but much like Greeley, he, too, looks to the west when thinking of the future.

“If we are ever going to offer west-bound service, the time is now,” Hainsey says. “This is our opportunity.”

Hainsey has a plan he believes will help achieve that goal.

Next month, he will make a presentation to the supervisors in Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Clay counties, as well as the governing bodies of Columbus, Starkville and West Point. And, yes, there will be a cost included in the plan.

Hainsey will ask for $100,000 each from Columbus, Lowndes County, Starkville and Oktibbeha County and $50,000 each from West Point and Clay County. That $500,000 will be used to help fund an incentive package he believes is essential to attracting a carrier that will begin west-bound air travel, preferably to Dallas. Routes to Houston or Denver are also possibilities.

The $500,000 is part of a $1.5-million package that includes a $750,000 Small Community Air Service Development grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The remainder of the package includes $200,000 in gate fee waivers and $50,000 in marketing expenses that the airport will provide the carrier.

Currently, the only airline that serves GTRA is Delta Airlines, which operates three daily flights to and from Atlanta.

Money will guarantee income for carrier

Under the plan, the grant money and money contributed by local government will provide a $1.25 million “risk abatement” fund for the carrier. The package will be in place for only the first year of operation.

“We will sit down with the airline and determine what we believe to be an accurate figure for their income for the year,” Hainsey said. “If, after the year ends, their income is less than that figure, we will use the money from the grant and the local governments to make up the difference.”

Any money not needed to cover that shortfall would be returned, Hainsey said.

That he would be compelled to put together an incentive package is a reflection of the current state of the airline industry, Hainsey said.

“It used to be that when a new industry located in an area, the airlines were knocking on the door, ready to provide air service,” Hainsey said. “It’s not that way anymore. The industry is contracting. Demand is high but supply is low. That’s created a tremendous competition for service and it’s been especially hard for airports in what is considered rural areas like ours.”

There is another trend in the industry that represents a challenge for smaller airports.

“The airlines aren’t as interested in operating the smaller jet service like the 50-passenger jets we operate,” Hainsey said. “The focus is on the larger aircraft.”

Business travel key to GTRA’s success

Even with those challenges, Hainsey remains optimistic that GTRA can secure the west-bound service he believes is critical to the airport’s long-term viability. GTRA relies heavily on business travel: Hainsey says 80 percent of his passengers are business travelers, something he believes is particularly appealing to bottom-line conscious potential carriers.

“Business rates are more profitable for the airlines,” Hainsey says. “That’s just the nature of business travel. Most people who are traveling for personal reasons usually buy their tickets in advance so they can get the lower fares. In business travel, that’s usually not the way it happens. The boss says, ‘I need you in New York tomorrow.’ You buy that ticket and it’s usually the highest rate. That’s very profitable for the airlines, obviously.”

Making a case for west-bound service

Hainsey is certain there will be a substantial demand for west-bound service he hopes to acquire.

“We definitely believe we have a market that would support west-bound service,’ Hainsey said. “We have a lot of industries already here that would have interest in that.”

It is a list that includes Airbus Helicopters, whose corporate headquarters are located in Dallas area; PACCAR, whose offices are in Houston; Weyerhaeuser, whose headquarters are in Washington State; and Steel Dynamics (formerly Severstal), which has business interests on both east and west coasts.

“And now we’ll have Yokohama Tire Company, which is based in Japan, and they will have interest in west-bound flights, too,” Hainsey said.

The outlook for continued industrial growth in the area also supports Hainsey’s appeal for an aggressive strategy toward securing west-bound service.

In November, Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Higgins said his group is currently working on a dozen projects representing in excess of $2 billion in new industry. There has also been much speculation over the prospects of American Specialties Alloys building a $1.2 billion aluminum processing facility in the area, although Higgins has not commented on that possibility.

“Our board has worked very closely with Joe Max Higgins and the LINK,” Hainsey said. “We’re all on board with this. We think it’s a plan that makes sense.”

A good track record

The success of GTRA over the past decade should build confidence, not only among local governments that will be asked to help fund the incentive package, but for prospective carriers.

Since the arrival of American Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) in 2003, more than $6.2 billion in new industry has committed to the Golden Triangle. The presence of the airport has been an important recruiting tool.

Hainsey estimates the overall economic impact of the airport at $272,580,000. Hainsey said more than 85,000 travelers come through GTRA each year, supporting 1,668 total jobs.

Budget considerations

Hainsey estimates that when a carrier is secured, west-bound service would begin in the summer or fall, which will give the counties and cities time to build their contribution into their fiscal year budgets, which start in August.

“We do recognize that some of these governments have less available money than others,” Hainsey said. “That’s why I’ve already approached the leaders of all the cities and counties and talked to them very informally about what we have in mind.

“We know it could be difficult for them to take money out of their current budgets for this, but by talking to them at the first of the year, they will be able to build this into their budget for next year because we won’t need that money until October and that money would be provided on a quarterly basis so it wouldn’t be a matter of providing a lump sum then.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].