COEUR d'ALENE - Spokane International Airport's new director is looking to make an impact.

Lawrence Krauter wants to expand SIA to allow more incoming and outgoing flights, which could help bring visitors to Coeur d'Alene.

"Thousands of people come through SIA to go stay at the (Coeur d'Alene) Resort," Krauter said. "The Resort can greatly benefit from the increase in tourists."

Bill Reagan, Resort general manager, also believes improved flight service could be a boon for business. In particular, non-stop service from Los Angeles, one of the many objectives outlined in the SIA Master Plan.

During the summer, the Southern California area is one of the top markets that fly to the Lake City, he said.

"Forty percent of our guests come from airports, and most tourists prefer non-stop destinations," Reagan said. "Having a non-stop service from Los Angeles would be very important to us and extremely important to our sales efforts."

Other objectives outlined in the airport's 30-year master plan include retaining the air services SIA provides now, Krauter said, as well as acquiring additional routes.

Krauter would like to improve service to Chicago, he added. As it stands, United Airlines only offers non-stop services at SIA seasonally. Krauter's objective is to make the service year-round.

How does SIA plan to tackle these goals? The Federal Department of Transportation Grant Program could help.

Typically around 20 airports are successful in each round of the grant cycle, and there are usually more than 75 applicants, Krauter said.

"Dollar values vary, but we are requesting $1,000,000, which is about the maximum," he said.

The Federal DOT Grant Program is offered to help small-market airports.

Krauter said the grant money will be used as "a revenue guarantee for an airline to provide non-stop service to the L.A. Basin." On top of that, the grant money will go toward marketing and advertising of the new flights.

Krauter's and SIA's goal is to have an airline fly an aircraft, with at least 99 seats, on a six-day basis and charge fares that are within 10 percent of current connecting service.

The application deadline is Tuesday, and Krauter said the review process takes about four to five months.

"Adding this is critical to our future," he said.

If Krauter and SIA receive the grant money and are able to obtain the non-stop service to L.A., they anticipate about 22-26 flights per week.

Just recently though, SIA took a minor hit from Southwest Airlines. The popular airline released its schedule of flights for next year and it determined it was best to remove its Spokane/Seattle service, and help out other markets instead.

"We analyzed all of our routes and saw where the demand was, and for our Seattle and Spokane service, we saw that demand was weak," said Southwest Airlines spokesperson Whitney Eichinger. "We decided to re-allocate our flights to more under-served markets."

Eichinger also said they study and analyze the markets and numbers every six weeks, and in the future they may add those flights back, if there's a demand for them.

Krauter said he understood Southwest's decision to pull the Spokane/Seattle service given the matter of high fuel prices and the high frequency of flights operated by Alaska Airlines in the Seattle/Spokane market.

Krauter added that Southwest will still be a marquee airline in Spokane even after the departure of the Spokane/Seattle service.

"Southwest continues to play a very prominent role in our market by providing daily non-stop service to Boise, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland and Phoenix," Krauter said.

Krauter graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Aviation Management and spent 21 years at Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, which includes Lehigh Valley International Airport, Queen City Airport and Braden Airpark.

Krauter is also a former president of the Aviation Council of Pennsylvania.

The longtime native of Pennsylvania believes the Spokane International Airport can attract more airlines and flights.

"When I looked into the opportunity, the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene area held a tremendous opportunity to grow," Krauter said.

Southwest discontinuing Spokane/Seattle service

SPOKANE - Southwest Airlines will discontinue its Spokane-to-Seattle service effective Jan. 7, 2012, the company announced.

"We believe the economics of the route, given high fuel prices and low load factors driven in part by the flight schedule in comparison to the schedule offerings provided by Alaska Airlines in the market made it difficult to compete," Spokane International Airport CEO and Director Lawrence J. Krauter said.

"Southwest continues to play a very prominent role in our market by providing daily non-stop service to Boise, Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland and Phoenix."

Meantime, Alaska Airlines says it is expanding service on Seattle-Spokane and Seattle-Boise routes.

The airline said Friday it will add two more daily flights on each route starting Jan. 8, 2012. The flights are now available for booking.