By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
FedEx still has 741 aircraft in its fleet, but none will be touching down on Del Rio International Airport’s runway in the near future.
The company’s last date landing here has shifted several times but at the moment, FedEx officials are saying the final takeoff will be sometime in February, after pushing the date from the Fall, to Jan. 6, to its new mark.
The number of takeoffs and landings is driven by demand, airport officials said. There were typically two or three arrivals and departures several days a week, dropping off or picking up packages.
The issue isn’t a Del Rio problem but driven by FedEx cutbacks nationwide. The company cut 60 percent of its daytime flights after losing a major U.S. Postal Service contract to UPS. The contract transferred hands Sept. 30.
However, according to Adam Snyder, one of the company’s communications advisers, Del Rio residents won’t see a change in service.
“This will have no impact on the high level of service expected from our customers in the Del Rio area,” Snyder told The 830 Times.
The only difference will be how the packages arrive.
“Shipments to and from the Del Rio area will instead be transported by trucks to the nearest FedEx hub to complete their journey through the FedEx network,” Snyder said.
Del Rio Mayor Al Arreola said the packages destined for Del Rio will come through Laredo.
Arreola said that he wasn’t really surprised when FedEx announced its decision. “There were a chunk of things that happened,” he said. “They are looking at the minuses and pluses of what’s best for them.”
There will be impacts to Del Rio’s economy.
The airport’s landing fee varies between each landing, depending on the size of the aircraft but officials said FedEx’s landing fees were never more than $200 per week.
However, Arreola said there will be a ripple effect.
“They aren’t buying fuel, there are impacts, and it could cost people jobs down the road,” the mayor said.
The good news is it doesn’t look like there will be any FedEx staffing cuts locally at this point.
The bad news is, for one local business, the move is a death knell.
Tommy and Lindsey Mitchell, owners of Rio Grande Aviation, are calling it quits and leaving Del Rio.
They aren’t mad at FedEx, but the local government.
“I’m so mad at the City of Del Rio,” said Lindsey, who said she and her husband met with city officials but can’t remember the exact individuals.
“We were hoping that they would work to keep locally-owned businesses from going under and being forced to leave. We have been at the airport since 2009, supporting all air traffic passing through Del Rio and based here including National Guard, FedEx, American Airlines, Texas Department of Public Safety and many more private companies,” she said.
“We have supported our local community in times of crisis, and Del Rio didn’t even blink to help locals. It was a gut punch,” Lindsey added.
Lindsey did say that Juan Onofre, City of Del Rio airport manager, was incredibly helpful throughout the experience.
However, the impacts of not having a fixed-based operator to perform aircraft maintenance at the airport could be deep as the city works to bring an airline back to the airport.
