Westmoreland County says it has long paid Spirit Airlines a $2.5 million annual subsidy to fly out of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity.
Per the Tribune-Review, the “county’s financial resources helped bring commercial air travel back to Westmoreland in 2011 after several years when no regularly scheduled flights departed from Palmer airport.”
“The money is used to offset [Spirit’s] personnel costs related to its reservations, ticket counter and baggage handling,” the Trib notes.
Uhm, why should taxpayers be subsidizing Spirit’s “personnel costs”? Shouldn’t that money be factored into the cost of passengers’ tickets?
This is the same Spirit, Palmer’s lone commercial carrier, that has been in and out of bankruptcy (and now is back in). This is the same Spirit that, next month, will kill its long-running direct flights to Orlando, the airport’s only regularly scheduled flight. It will, however, resume its seasonal flights to Myrtle Beach, S.C., at the same time.
The Orlando flight cancellation comes a mere two months before an expanded Palmer is expected to bow. The $22 million expansion is said to be a “key factor” in luring another airline (or airlines) to the facility.
And the departing executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority confirmed to the Trib last week that substantial talks are underway with an unnamed carrier that would complement Spirit Airlines at Palmer.
A Westmoreland County commissioner tells the Trib he thinks “it’s a necessary conversation to figure out [what] an appropriate allocation would be in light of this announcement.” He remains “confident that massive improvements that are going on there will pay long-term dividends.”
The county’s other two commissioners say they have no plans to reduce the annual subsidy. Whether that $2.5 million is a finite pool or a like amount that would be offered to any new airline that comes to Palmer is unclear.
But if Westmoreland County officials are so “confident that the massive improvements” that are soon to debut at Palmer “will pay long-term dividends,” why should taxpayers be asked to further subsidize any service?
That same departing Airport Authority exec told WTAE-TV that Spirit’s decision to bag its Orlando flights and the airport expansion puts Palmer “in a position where we can go negotiate now.”
“We’re in a much stronger position to negotiate now than we ever have been because now we have the space to do what we say we can do. We’re not limited. You make decisions based on opportunity, not on limitations,” he said.
“It could be two (airlines), could be three. We’re not limited any more. This gives us that opportunity to go out into the marketplace and say, ‘Here we are, come take us.'”
That’s great. But it should not be an invitation for airlines that should pay their own way to “come take” taxpayers.
Palmer’s experience with Spirit may have returned regular commercial airline service 15 years ago. But, in the end, propping it up in 2011 certainly did not do it any favors. And it only made taxpayers poorer for the experience.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
