By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Commercial air service could resume at Del Rio International Airport in 2024, city council members learned Tuesday.
Council members heard an update on efforts to restore commercial air service to the city from Mike Mooney, a managing partner of Volaire Aviation Consulting, the company the city hired to spearhead efforts to restore commercial air service.
Del Rio lost its commercial air service in April after American Airlines announced it would suspend operations here.
Mooney began his presentation to the council by going over the current state of the airline industry, stressing “the nation’s pilot shortage continues to impact airline decisions.”
“The great challenge and the primary reason American exited the market is the shortage of pilots, and that shortage continues. We’re beginning to see some signs of improvement, but not dramatic improvement,” Mooney told the council.
He added the pilot shortage continues “to constrain service restoration and service expansion.”
“The regional airlines that would service Del Rio are the ones that were hit the hardest, but even the big guys, the networks and the ultra low-cost carriers, are struggling to fully staff. The retirement curve is still ahead of the qualified new hire curve,” Mooney said.
He said the “little bit of good news, the glimmer of hope” as concerns the pilot shortage is the fact that some airlines have stopped hiring.
“Just to show how capitalism reacts to the shortage of an important commodity: We’re short of pilots, so what happens? The airlines are moving to larger aircraft. The average domestic flight aircraft in November of 2019 was 118 seats. In 2022, it was 132 seats. In 2023, it’s 134 seats,” Mooney said.
He told the council in November 2023, domestic traffic was up 6 percent over November 2019 and up 10 percent over November of 2022, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
“So we’re finally generating more domestic travel, more travel in general, than we were pre-COVID for similar months. Leisure travel demand has fully recovered, while business travel has been slower to recover,” Mooney said.
Mooney discussed airfares for the “domestic big three airlines” and the cost of oil, then returned to a discussion of the ongoing pilot shortage, telling the council, “It’s a wonderful time to be a pilot. Pilot salaries are soaring, with even regional carriers offering pilots six-figure signing bonuses.”
He said there is an accelerating retirement of 50-seat regional jets by network carriers, with American Airlines having eliminated all 50-seat service at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport by May 2023 and Delta eliminating the last of its 50-seat regional jets from its network this month.
He said United Airlines shows departures of its 50-seat fleet down 12 percent from October 2022 and down 74 percent from October 2019.
“This is the primary reason we lost American,” Mooney said.
Mooney also noted some 50-seat regional jets are being refitted as 30-seat regional jets, but added unions are fighting this practice, claiming it circumvents safety regulations.
He said American and Southwest are fighting the practice as well, specifically targeting the airline called JSX, which uses the 30-seat jets for luxury services out of Dallas Love Field.
He said the FAA is studying the issue and “all of this political stuff is delaying the approval of SkyWest Charter’s application.”
“SkyWest Charters is a division of SkyWest Airlines, which is the largest regional airline in the country, and they do fly for United Airlines out of Houston. We certainly want to see the approval of SkyWest Charter’s application to have 30-seat regional jets,” Mooney said.
“The bottom line is that smaller cities are confronted with the need to profitably support 65- to 75-seat airplanes or look at downgrading to 30-seat airplanes or nine-seat airplanes, and nine-seat airplanes are really for very small cities and very short flights, not really a solution for Del Rio,” he added.
Mooney showed the council a chart detailing how American, Delta and United are reducing the number of 50-seat regional jets in their fleets.
Mooney then reviewed the “Del Rio air service restoration action plan.”
He first said retention of existing airport infrastructure is critical and includes the TSA and the firefighting apparatus for commercial flights, known as ARFF.
“We have the Small Community Air Service Development grant. We won that in September, and we need to make sure that the local matching commitments are in place,” he said.
Mooney said detailed research will need to be done on the air service requirements for personnel stationed at Laughlin Air Force Base and U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees.
“What are their travel patterns? In other words, we’re trying to pin down before American left, how did they use the air service, and then since American left, how are they moving their people and at what cost?” Mooney said.
“As (the city manager) mentioned, we will soon be in discussions with multiple carriers, and we’re hopeful that one or more new service options will be available for community consideration in 2024. We have two meetings lined up for late January and early February,” Mooney told the council.
City Manager John Sheedy echoed Mooney’s optimism and said he appreciated the work Volaire and others are doing to restore commercial air service to Del Rio.
Mayor Al Arreola said no council action was needed on the item and said he was sure Sheedy and Mooney and the city’s economic development director, Jorge Ramon, would keep council “in the loop” as new information became available.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez added, “John and Jorge, don’t take your foot off the gas pedal. Let’s go forward. Let’s get (an) airline back for Del Rio and thank you for all your hard work.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
