By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus said he isn’t sold on the idea of the city spending millions of
dollars to bring in a new airline.
DeReus made his comments about the city’s efforts to restore commercial air service at
Del Rio International Airport during his most recent town hall meeting at the civic center
Thursday, (see complete story here) following a question by Del Rio business owner and former city
councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon.
gestures as she speaks about a city council vote on the placement of a new gas station
near the intersection of North Bedell Avenue and Second Street. Calderon made her
comments during Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus’ town hall meeting on Thursday. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
DeReus had briefly spoken about Laughlin Air Force Base’s transition to the T-7 trainer
aircraft when Calderon asked, “How about the airline service?”
DeReus replied, “Who knows?”
He added, “In two weeks, we’re supposed to have a public meeting with some people, so,
as I said at the meeting a couple of weeks ago, one, I’m disappointed that everyone wants
an airline, and everyone is pushing the city to do what we can to get an airline, but no one
else is really helping out, right?”
DeReus went on: “The hospital has claimed multiple times that when we lost American
(Airlines) a couple years ago, they had doctors that were coming in from Dallas first
thing Monday morning and were seeing patients 12 hours a day all week and then leaving
on the last plane out on Friday night.
“Then (the airline) went away, and as soon as (the doctors’) contracts were up, they
stopped coming down here. Well, then help us out. Because in 2018, it (cost the city)
$2.9 million, basically, a subsidy. They called it a revenue guarantee. Now, they’ve
changed the term to ‘risk mitigation.’
“Either way, whichever one of those three terms you want, it’s paying (an airline
company) to provide service. So in 2018, it was $2.9 million for two years. . . But think
about all the price increases and everything, so if it was $2.9 million in 2018, how much
do you think it’s going to be for two years, three years, whatever, in 2025-2026?”
DeReus said.
Calderon noted the previous subsidy was paid by raising tolls at the city’s international
bridge.
DeReus commented, “One of the things (the city did) was to raise the bridge (toll) by 50
cents, right? That’s going to go to pay for (the subsidy), and one of the assumptions, if I
remember correctly, was an 11 percent increase in crossing traffic for, like, the next
decade.
“About a year later, I’m at the bridge, talking to the bridge superintendent, who has told
me, ‘Yeah, we’re actually lower than we were last year at this time.’ And this was pre-
COVID. So that’s why we still haven’t repaid the general fund that $2.9 million.
“So now the question is, in seven, eight months, whatever, when we (pay off the $2.9
million), are we now going to lower the bridge (crossing) fee? Because it was raised
specifically to pay for the airline.
“No, it’s not going to happen. I’m going to bring it up because it’s been said, ‘It’s nice
for the city to have that money.’ Well, you’re not wrong, but it’s not your money, so how
about the people whose money it is?” DeReus said.
“Long story short, I have no idea. It looks, most likely, at this point, I don’t want to get
too far ahead on this, but most likely if anything happens in the near future, it would be
from Del Rio to Houston rather than Ft. Worth, and I don’t think it really matters,
because you can hop on almost any (airline) in both places,” he added.
DeReus also said the city must pay careful attention to an airline’s maintenance record.
“When we had Continental, United, 10 years ago or whatever, I don’t know about all the
federal agencies, but I know the base personnel were put off limits from flying out of Del
Rio because if your plane broke, they would say they would send someone to fix it
tomorrow, so we had a lot of people who were going to training and conferences that
would get there a day late. American was a lot better. . .They were doing two round-trips
a day, and that was part of the reason it was allowed for base personnel, to use American
out of Del Rio, because if you were on the first plane in the morning and it broke, they
knew they were going to have another one down here later that day,” he said.
DeReus added restoring airline service will likely cost the city “millions of dollars, which
we don’t have right now,” noting there are pressing water and sewer issues the city must
address first.
He said, “From the economic side, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, it’s great economic impact to
have the airline,’ and the whole time American was here, I was asking people, and no one
could really say, definitively, yes, there’s this economic advantage to the city paying all
this money, so that’s tough.”
DeReus said despite the fact that the economic benefit of an airline was hard to quantify,
there was no doubt that it was a tremendous boost to the city’s quality of life.
“You’re not going to make money on quality of life stuff, like an airline or parks or a golf
course, but then you look at the people who are going to be using the airline service. It’s
going to be the doctors, the lawyers, a lot of the federal employees, who are going to fly
anyway. So now we are subsidizing, taking taxpayer funds that we could be using to do
more roads or whatever else is needed, and we are subsidizing plane tickets for people
who could probably afford it anyway. That’s another tough sell for me,” he said.
DeReus said he personally loved having the airline here and used it several times.
“It’s great to grab your bag and 10 minutes later you can be in your bed. That is
awesome, but is it worth the financial hit? I am not sold, to be honest,” he added.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
