El Centro City Councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker isn’t pleased that the Imperial Airport lost its Los Angeles flights and now has flights bound only for San Diego.
Viegas-Walker believes that the provided option would bring a detrimental effect on economic development as it makes it “much more difficult to bring investors to the Valley.”
The councilwoman made this opinion evident during Tuesday’s El Centro City Council meeting when she asked her colleagues whether they would be interested in asking the Department of Transportation to reconsider the contract awarded to Seaport Airlines.
As decided earlier this month, Seaport will serve the county for two years through the Essential Air Service program, a federal program that subsidizes rural airports. By winning the contract, Seaport displaced SkyWest, which served the county for some 30 years and during the last bid proposed 13 round trips per week to Los Angeles International Airport.
Seaport had originally offered 17 weekly roundtrips to San Diego and 12 weekly round trips to Burbank airport north of Los Angeles in a nine-seat airplane. However, according to a DOT report, the federal government decided against that option “given the program’s current budget constraints” and selected the less expensive option. “But we encourage the community and carrier to work together so that Seaport may be able to provide the community’s more preferred option … at the same subsidy rate,” the report reads.
The less expensive option is five flights to San Diego commuter terminal every day during the week, and five flights during the weekend in a nine-seat plane with no restrooms or beverage service. Reaching the commuter terminal also means passengers have to go through security in San Diego when going onto a connection flight. A car trip to San Diego takes less than two hours compared to a roughly 45-minute plane flight.
“So many of us, when we are going to fly out (from) San Diego, simply drive to San Diego,” said Viegas-Walker on Tuesday and added “the benefit of the SkyWest carrier, and why we took a position to support (them), is because they got us into L.A. where we could continue to other destinations.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Councilwoman Sedalia Sanders sided with Viegas-Walker, but noted that she would want to engage with other officials before engaging with the DOT. Sanders, also commissioner at the Imperial County Transportation Commission, said she would discuss the matter during the next ICTC meeting.
In addition, City Manager Ruben Duran was asked to voice the council’s concerns during the next ICTC management committee meeting.
“The first thing that we need to discuss is whether there is a majority that would like to see a change,” said Viegas-Walker. She said that if there is a majority, “We need to come together and say that we want the DOT to reconsider.”
And reconsideration is something local agencies can request, according to Bill Mosley, spokesman for the DOT, who said that “any interested party can petition DOT for reconsideration of an EAS selection.”
It is unclear whether a majority of county residents or officials dislikes the current flight option, but county supervisor and board Chairman Ray Castillo is one who doesn’t like it. He noted that at first he was supportive of the deal because of the Burbank option.
“That would have been a good alternative to LAX,” he said.
He said residents have contacted him to complain about the deal and added, “We should try to work to get that changed.”
Dennis Logue, network volunteer with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, agreed that there are “mixed concerns out there.” And yet, Logue also said that there are pluses and minuses.
“There are a lot of good things that come out of this (option),” he said.
Seaport is basing planes at the Imperial Airport, which results in rent revenue for parking the plane, he said. Moreover, basing a plane at the airport brings more maintenance jobs, Logue said, and noted Seaport’s flight schedule also means more flights in and out of the airport.
Staff Writer Alejandro Dávila can be reached at 760-337-3445 or adavila@ivpressonline.com
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