SAFFORD — The future of commercial air service to Phoenix remains up in the air.
Following a nearly one-hour discussion on the need for an additional $655,000 from the city to continue Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines flights between Safford and Phoenix, the Safford City Council let the issue die for lack of a motion.
The city had received an $800,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant, a $100,000 grant from the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation and contributed $150,000 to meet the minimum revenue guarantee for an air service provider to serve Safford for one year. Instead, most of that money was spent in eight months.
Airport Manager Cameron Atkins said the $655,000 requested would keep the service going through June 2026. Meanwhile he and other rural airport managers from around the state are lobbying the state Legislature to establish an air service fund.
“Most rural air services rely on some form of a subsidy, because rural air service out of small communities is incredibly hard to sustain. In order to get the ticket price you’d actually have to get for a small aircraft like this, nobody would pay it,” Atkins said. “We’re looking at that long-term funding through the state. New Mexico has a program they passed a few years ago that is very similar to what we’re trying to do with the state of Arizona.”
He also said to offset losses, the number of round-trip flights between Safford and Phoenix has been reduced from two to one per day; and the airport has introduced dynamic pricing, which charges a higher amount per ticket the closer to the day of the flight.
And he said he has been in talks to get more usage by Freeport-McMoRan, which has specific requirements on the size of planes upon which it will book its employees — airplane sizes not currently in use under the city’s agreement with Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines.
Atkins said the $95,000 remaining is enough to keep air service going through September.
