By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City Manager John Sheedy told city council members Tuesday local elected and business leaders are mobilizing to counter a decision by American Airlines to stop commercial air service to Del Rio.
Sheedy reiterated the decision by American, announced Jan. 5, did not stem from any action or inaction by the city. Sheedy made his comments as part of the “city manager’s informational update” during the Del Rio City Council’s first regular meeting of the year.
“I just wanted to do a quick discussion about our status with American Airlines. I want to be on record that there were no notification requests or discussions with airport or city administration related to any concerns about our air service, so I just want to be clear that this was just as much of a surprise for us as it was for everyone else,” Sheedy told the council.
“We had no idea. No one had asked us for anything. Nobody had given us any reason to suspect that we needed to do anything differently or that we may be in trouble,” he added.
Sheedy said he and his staff are “currently coordinating a comprehensive response” to the announcement.
“We’re going to put together all of our efforts, get everybody on the same page, and that is going to include all of our entities and businesses. We’re working on a letter of support. We have the draft, and that will be completed tomorrow, that we’ll start circulating,” Sheedy said.
“We’ve been in discussions – the mayor and myself and I’m sure some others also – with our state elected representatives. They’ve been very supportive, and they’re very concerned, and they’ve articulated that they’re going to do what they can to help us. We’ve had discussions also with our state and federal lobbyists, in Washington, D.C. I reached out to our state lobbyists today, and they’re working really hard, and they are also concerned,” the city manager added.
“Both (Airport Manager) Mr. Onofre and (City Economic Development Director) Mr. Ramon are working to find opportunities to re-establish our air service in some context. Of course, our primary objective is to work as hard as we can with American to see if we can have them reconsider. We feel that our community has worked really hard. We did the hard work. We did what we needed to do. We got the numbers, and it’s just very disappointing that after all the work that we’ve done, to find ourselves in this situation,” Sheedy said.
“We’re also working on an itinerary, to possibly travel to American Airlines’ corporate offices in Dallas, and we’ll be putting together a group of representatives from the (governmental) entities, the chambers and various organizations to help us with that.
“I just want to reiterate that we’re working as hard as we can, and we’re not going to stop. We’ll just keep plugging as hard as we can, until, hopefully, we get American back, but if not, we’re going to reach out to every airline, every service that we can, to see what we can put together to re-establish air service,” Sheedy said.
“The county is also on board with us,” Mayor Al Arreola said, and Sheedy said he has spoken to both County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. and to Dr. Carlos Rios, superintendent of Schools for the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
“They’re absolutely on board to help in any way that they can,” Sheedy said.
After the meeting, Sheedy added there is an entrenched public misconception the city was still subsidizing the airline.
“I want to clarify that the city has not paid one penny in subsidies to the airline for at least the past two years. The airline is completely self-supporting,” Sheedy said.
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