Nonstop air service between Reno and
New York City is likely in the next 18
months, and Reno
airport officials
continue to work
hard to win direct
service to Atlanta.
Other strategic
initiatives of airport
officials include
direct flights to San Diego, and a longerterm
goal is development of direct international
flights, says Krys Bart, executive
director of the Airport Authority of
Washoe County.
Bart told members of the Northern
Nevada Development Authority in
Carson City last week that she is "rather
confident" that JetBlue will launch a daily
red-eye between Reno and New York.
Direct service between Reno and
Atlanta, she said, is particularly critical
for the northern Nevada ski industry.
Florida residents account for the single
largest number of ski tourists of any
state in the nation, and they typically
travel through Atlanta.
Bart said airport officials can show that
enough Atlanta-bound passengers to fill
two and a half planes a day already leave
Reno, and that's without the effects of any
marketing push.
Direct service to San Diego, she said,
is hamstrung by limited airport facilities at
the southern California city.
Direct international flights from Reno
to Mexico, the Pacific Rim and the
United Kingdom are priorities over the
next decade, she said.
The top airport official cautioned,
however, that all of the airport's strategic
plans could evaporate if the United States
goes to war with Iraq.
Effects of a war on Reno-Tahoe
International Airport, Bart said, would
include:
* Rising fears of terrorism among the
flying public.
* Increasing fuel prices, which might be
enough to send some already weak carriers
into bankruptcy.
* Loss of privately owned aircraft to
troop transport.
While the recent decision by American
Airlines to drop two daily flights to Los
Angeles worry Bart and other airport officials,
she said the longer-term view of
American's move is more positive.
The carrier, she said, faces substantial
pressure from low-cost airlines, and the
loss of the flights to Los Angeles is part of
a cost-cutting effort that will reduce the
number of American Airlines flights by 9
percent domestically.
"I'd rather lose two flights than lose the
airline," Bart said.
