President: No interest from community in flying

MOSES LAKE — In the wake of a federal subsidy termination, commercial air carrier Big Sky Airlines suspends service from Grant County International Airport Friday morning.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a final order terminating the Moses Lake-Ephrata area's eligibility for the Essential Air Service subsidy earlier this month, citing low passenger numbers.

Big Sky president Fred deLeeuw said the carrier will operate its morning flight from Moses Lake to Portland, Ore., then from Portland back to Moses Lake and from Moses Lake to Boise on Friday, and then suspend service.

DeLeeuw said the company suspended service because it was losing money.

"Once news got out, once reporters report the service is disappearing, people stop showing up at the airport and people stop booking, the economics just get worse and worse and worse," deLeeuw said. "As much as we'd like to serve Moses Lake and we've enjoyed our time in Moses Lake, frankly, there is no interest from the community. We have not seen the interest from the community to use our service to fly."

DeLeeuw was uncertain of the reason for that.

"We stopped service to Seattle. We moved it to Boise, and frankly, Boise started doing really well," he said, noting Portland also did well. "The community, for some reason, thought they wanted service to Seattle, which is much more difficult for us to fly to, much more costly … There's businesses in the community that say it's critical to have the service and they wouldn't use it."

DeLeeuw dismissed charges of unreliability, saying the company operated 97 percent of their flights, with more than 80 percent of the flights arriving on time within 15 minutes.

"You talk to someone and they'll be one of the people that was there on the day a flight was canceled," he said, and that makes everybody believe every flight was canceled. "That's not the case."

DeLeeuw said the company ceased taking reservations and contacted every passenger booked after that date, to either reaccommodate or refund them.

The Moses Lake operation employs two people, and a temporary worker from another airport. One employee will remain with the company as an instructor, deLeeuw said, and the other has been offered employment elsewhere in the system, although that person may look elsewhere within the Moses Lake area.

DeLeuuw extended thanks to the Columbia Basin citizens and Port of Moses Lake commissioners, staff and manager Craig Baldwin and said that if the opportunity arises, his company would be interested in operating in Moses Lake again.

"We truly wish this had worked out, but it didn't," he said. "We would be glad to chat with them at sometime in the future if it makes sense, and we wish the best to everybody."

"We are continuing to work to obtain air service for the community," Baldwin said.