A new group is working to restore passenger air service to Chico after close to one year without it.
Experts and community business owners have united in the hopes of attracting business and allowing Chico State students and their and friends family to fly to and from the city and give use to the airport space.
Why was air service canceled?
Airport Manager Sherry Miller said there are several reasons why passenger service was cancelled.
"The ridership in the airport declined because service into San Francisco became unreliable," Miller said.
Miller said there were other reasons too.
"We ran into a pilot-shortage and that together with the weather being bad into San Francisco quite often, they chose to have some delays and cancels, and when the airline chose which city would get the cancellation or have the delay if they had some issues, it necessarily needed to be a smaller city with fewer passengers," said Miller.
The Chico Chamber of Commerce conducted an air travel service survey to look at airport use, the economic benefit and service demand on March 2015.
Will having air service be good for the city?
Airport Manager Miller said air service would attract more business.
"It would probably mean that more businesses would come here. We would certainly have more visitors, the family of the university students that kind of thing," said Miller.
The economic benefit of air service study will be conducted to determine how much benefit will come and where it will be necessary to focus resources according to Miller.
"It is a definite economic benefit to the community, a lot of studies have been done and some of the studies that we are going to do is the economic benefit of air service," she said. "That will show the community what kind of economic benefit the airport will provide and in exactly what areas that benefit will come."
AvPorts, an airport operations and management company, provides a link to a a long-term plan that outlines the management and maintenance of the airport and the economic benefit of having the airport open commercially.
Who is currently using the airport?
The companies that currently use the airport are Cal Fire, PG&E and Northgate Aviation among others, said Miller.
"Cal Fire is here, we have a contractor that has a contract with PG&E I believe and they fly the power lines," she said. " We have a couple of businesses here that make modifications to firefighting aircraft and we have a business called a fixed based operator, Northgate Aviation, they provide services to smaller aircraft private aircraft that come in."
Miller said that Northgate Aviation, the airport’s only FBO sells fuel, pilot-supplies, rents aircraft, gives flight-instructions and provides other services like towing.
Norm Rosener, owner of Odyssey winery and co-founder of JetChico.org said JetChico.org has been working on an airport plan for almost a year.
"We have been meeting since December of last year, and we have looked at similar airports and we have developed a conceptual plan that is pretty much finished," Rosener said. "It will be used to develop a cost analysis of how much the terminal will cost and that will help us develop a financing plan," he said.
What is being done to bring air service back to the city?
Rosener said that plans are being made on changing the airport’s infrastructure and terminal.
“We are working on developing a plan to improve our infrastructure and then our second component is financing of the infrastructure improvements, so how do we pay for the terminal,” Rosener said.
Co-founder of JetChico and local business owner John Strisower said that the group formed out of the need to do something about the current situation.
“Our group is about a year old and we formed this group because we didn’t think that there was enough actually happening,” he said. “As I mentioned this is something that businesses owners have been talking about that I know of for 25 years."
Following is a link to the proposed floor-plan that will extend the current size of the airport to accommodate regional jets and will add a new terminal building.
What is next for JetChico?
The community group will continue to meet throughout the year to discuss how to bring air service back, according to Rosener.
“We will be meeting next month and we will continue to be talking about financing," he said. "We are going to have some experts come in that are experts in financing especially when dealing with airports."
The federal government may have some funding that JetChico can use said Rosener.
"There is some federal funding that we may be able to obtain but we need more information about that to see if it will apply to our situation,” said Rosener.
When can the community expect to see some changes?
“I think that by Spring or early summer of next year, we’d like to have everything complete so that we can go to the airline," said Rosener. "Because we are volunteers and we meet every month we kind of keep plotting along the way," he said.
John Strisower, co-founder of JetChico said cities similar to Chico benefit from having air service.
“When you compare air service in places like Santa Rosa and Redding and see what that contributes to the local economy, it’s staggering,” Strisower said.
Strisower said that he has been part of business groups for 25 years.
"I have been in groups that are business-owner groups in Chico for 25 years and this is in the top few topics every single time," Strisower said, "so I think that business owners think that it’s important.
What will air service mean for businesses and residents?
Strisower said that it will be good for Chico State and for businesses who would like to expand.
"It would increase economic development it would increase traffic to the school, it will be good for the school," he said. "It will allow businesses to settle here that wouldn’t otherwise because it is too difficult for executives to come here and potential employees and vendors."
Not only will the university and local businesses benefit.
"I think that it’s really important for the future of building businesses and the economic environment necessary to increase the standard of living,” Strisower said.
