Airfield of dreams

If you build it , we will come, area businesses tell airport authority

By RUSTY GARRETT
Times Staff Writer

Acting on the belief airlines will locate where their customers want them, staff members for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport are attempting to convince airline representatives the facility being built in rural Benton County is the airport of choice for most of the area's business air travelers.

Stan Green, Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority's chairman of the board, announced Friday he received a letter signed by 60 business and industry representatives committing to use the new airport.

The business leaders estimated they spent a total of $46.4 million on commercial air service in 1996. During the same period, their suppliers and vendors spent $26.7 million on travel to and from Northwest Arkansas, they said.

Currently the only airport in the area providing commercial air passenger service is Drake Field in Fayetteville.

The letter contains a "collective commitment" by those who signed it "to utilized the new regional airport for commercial air service, and utilize the air carriers serving our market from the new airport, consistent with the establishment of appropriate service levels and fare schedules."

The letter also contains a pledge by those who signed to encourage vendors and suppliers to use the new airport.

Among the signers are representatives of Tyson Foods, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transportation. Also among the signers are current airport authority board members Bill Mathews, owner/operator of McDonalds Restaurants; and Virginia Mocivnik, co-owner of Kedzie Transmission Co.; as well as former board members George Westmoreland of Merrill Lynch and Mark Simmons, chairman of Simmons Foods.

Scott Van Laningham, airport staff member, said the staff organized the drafting of the letter.

"As we have gone to different communities in the two counties talking about the airport, we've had folks who told us, 'When it's built, that's where we'll fly,'" Van Laningham said.

He said the staff members decided to ask those who voiced support for the project to "put it in writing" for presentation to the airlines the airport hopes to lure from Drake Field to the new facility.

Van Laningham said with the help of area chambers of commerce and the Llama Company, the authority staff collected the names of businesses supporting the airport and calculated their air traffic spending.

The staff finalized a draft of the letter about two weeks ago and "we've been riding the circuit getting signatures since then," Van Laningham said.

So far the letter has been shown to representatives of Delta Airlines and American Airlines in presentations by the authority staff.

"They were impressed," Van Laningham said.

"As we said in the letter, we contend the airlines will provide service where their customers want it. This letter seems to say that."

Meetings with other airlines serving Drake Field are scheduled.

No air carriers have yet committed to provide service to the airport, Van Laningham said. He doesn't expect that to happen until a firm price tag for the terminal is determined, and the airlines know what it will cost them to operate at the new airport.

However, the show of support by the region's leading businesses can help in selling the airlines on the regional airport.

The authority will try to negotiate memos of understanding with the airlines, which it hopes will eventually lead to firm contracts for air service.