Legislators And City Council To Discuss Jamestown Airport
County Legislator David Wilfong, R-Jamestown, believes returning commercial air service to the Jamestown area is crucial.
On Monday he will be meeting with members of the Jamestown City Council to discuss the current airport market study that’s underway. He will be joined by Legislator Lisa Vanstrom, R-West Ellicott, Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, R-Ellery, and County Executive PJ Wendel.
Other county legislators have been invited to attend as well.
“We’re going to discuss what our plans are going to be going forward and what a vital economic driver commercial air service coming back to the city of Jamestown will mean to the city of Jamestown,” Wilfong said.
In April of 2023, the county Legislature agreed to spend $50,000 for the Air Service Development Project, which will examine whether or not the Jamestown airport can sustain commercial air service. The county Industrial Development Agency also contributed $25,000 to this study.
The market study is necessary if the county is to pursue commercial air service to Jamestown.
Chagnon said previously the study is underway and he suspects the results will be released sometime this year.
Depending on what the report shows, the county may ask the federal government to reconsider Essential Air Service in Jamestown.
Wilfong admitted that even if the study shows the county can support commercial air service, there’s no guarantee it will return. “The odds are against us. I’ll be the first to tell you that, but we’ve got a good group of people working and hopefully we can pull this off,” he said.
Jamestown lost commercial service when the federal Transportation Department terminated Essential Air Service eligibility for Jamestown on Jan. 16, 2018. That decision was made because the local airport wasn’t meeting the federal standard of 10 passengers a day nor the federal government’s $200 per rider subsidy cap.
AIRPORT RUNS
Even without the commercial air service, the Jamestown airport has continued to be busy with private flights.
In 2023 at the Jamestown airport there were 7,943 arrivals and departures (combined); in 2022, there were 8,625 arrivals and departures; in 2021, there were 6,347 arrivals and departures; and in 2020, there were 5,101 arrivals and departures.
Shannon Fischer, manager of county airports, said they use a computer tracking system to gather the data. “I will say, it does a pretty good job, but do know that this is not 100%. We could have more. Tail numbers can be blocked to not be tracked and in our system it will not show up,” she said.
The tracking system was installed in 2019, and Fischer said she doesn’t have activity prior to that, except for 2018, when there were about 9,800 operations that year.
The Dunkirk airport has never had commercial air service, and there has been no push to bring it there.
Like the Jamestown airport, it does get its share of activity. In 2020, there were 1,390 arrivals and departures. In 2021, there were 2,037 arrivals and departures.
The 2022 and 2023 numbers are not completely accurate.
In 2022, the county had recorded 1,503 arrivals and departures and, in 2023, they recorded 1,378. In 2022, one of the transponders was not functioning properly, so they did not have data for some of the months in 2022. It was replaced but malfunctioned again in 2023, leaving inaccurate data from June to September.
Fischer believes they will have accurate arrivals and departures in 2024.
According to Fischer, when there was commercial air service, the county wasn’t required to track the departures and landings. This was before she was serving as the manager of the airports. “Because we had it (commercial flights) we didn’t have to justify anything,” she said.
And while Fischer appreciates having the data, it doesn’t always tell the full story. When she looks at the flights in 2023 compared to 2022, there was a slight dip. However, the county “almost doubled” the jet and helicopter operations this past year from the year before.
“To me, that means we’re getting larger aircraft in, which helps support the fuel (sales). … We had two record-breaking months last year for fuel flowage,” she said.
MARKET STUDY
While all eyes are on the study’s release, Fischer said this will be more to show the airports the best path to move forward. She actually calls it an “air service recovery program” and believes it will provide the data needed to help support the county’s efforts of pursuing air service.
“We have two excellent general aviation airports that currently add a lot of value to our region, county, and communities. Air service to our community, and to small rural airports nationwide, would be icing on the cake,” she said.
One of Wilfong’s concerns is that nationally, no city that has lost its Essential Air Service designation has been able to get it back.
Fischer agrees, but said there are other options as well. “It is definitely a challenge to get EAS reinstated; our community knows this first hand and a lot of rural communities are facing a similar challenge of daily air service – just like us. That said, many current EAS airports are granted waivers within the EAS program, so exceptions are possible. But EAS isn’t the only program available, and we are exploring other federal options. The study will help guide us on that,” she said.
There’s another group Fischer said the airport is working with as well. “We are becoming more involved in the RESTORE Air Service Coalition. It’s a national group comprised of nine or so small and rural airports who are also struggling with the issues around daily air service, and is lobbying Congress to make changes to programs like EAS and offer up creative new ideas for long-term solutions,” she said.
In terms of Monday’s meeting with the Jamestown City Council, Fischer believes it has a lot of value, even if technically the airport is located outside of the city limits, sitting in the town of Ellicott. “I think everyone needs to help support the airport. We’re all in the same community and region. The airport is county-owned and it has Jamestown’s name on it, but we all need to work together to come up with a solution. … This airport is for the region – the community, the county, the city – it benefits everyone,” she said.
Fischer said she expects the market study to be completed in the next three to six months.