Airport group eyes flights to Dallas, L.A., Phoenix

If all goes according to plan, the number of options for direct flight destinations going in and out of Glacier Park International Airport will only be increasing in the coming months.

Glacier AERO, a local nonprofit that raises money to entice airlines to offer more direct flight options to the area, is beginning its next fundraising campaign with sights set on access to markets in Dallas, southern California and Phoenix.

In the last round of fundraising the organization accumulated about $220,000. They hope to raise $330,000 in this next campaign.

Kim Morisaki, fundraising chair of AERO, said the airport is applying for a federal grant worth between $750,000 and $800,000, while AERO is aiming to raise $240,000 as a community match that is required to make a competitive grant application. They hope to have that much raised by the end of the summer, Morisaki said.

The additional $90,000 of the campaign target will go to continuing minimum revenue guarantees for the relatively new Chicago service, or could be contributed to securing a deal for an additional new destination.

Morisaki said their last campaign drew donations from 42 businesses in the Flathead Valley.

“Anyone who has clients or employees flying in and out or relies on the tourist industry benefits in the long term,” Morisaki said.

If AERO is successful, the grant and locally raised funds could fuel multiple years of growth at the airport, Morisaki said.

“Convenient and competitively priced air service is essential for any community that supports business growth and attraction of entrepreneurs,” Morisaki said in a prepared statement. “Companies with clients nationally are well-served when we increase both the number of airlines serving our market and the number of planes landing at GPIA.”

In a presentation to the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce earlier this month, Glacier Park International Airport direct Rob Ratkowski noted that travelers who arrive in the Flathead Valley in an airplane spend more than travelers that arrive via any other method.

Potential direct flight destinations are chosen using research compiled by a consulting firm, which examined where travelers to Glacier Park International Airport originated before they are transferred through other airport hubs. The study then looked into how feasible forming a direct route to the most popular destination was.

In the beginning, minimum revenue guarantees tend to be quite large, oftentimes more than $200,000 for a single season, Morisaki said.

The organization is required to put that much money into an account, and if the airline commits to the route for a season but falls short of that revenue goal, the amount they are short is backfilled by the money from that account.

As airlines successfully offer routes for a season and hit revenue goals, they begin to require less money be put in the account. In the case of the Chicago flight, the summer service now has grown stable enough that the airline requires no minimum revenue guarantee. A revenue guarantee is still in place for winter flights to and from Chicago.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.