A contract to provide nearly year-round air service between Mammoth Airport and Los Angeles via Horizon Air is currently in the works. The plan would include subsidies from Mammoth Mountain and the Town of Mammoth to keep a daily Mammoth to LA flight going from April through October, following the winter air service schedule.
Mammoth Airport and Transportation Director, Bill Manning, said that flights to LA, San Jose, Reno, Seattle and Portland will end April 12th. At that point, the plan would be one daily flight between Los Angeles and Mammoth to continue through the end of October. After a brief hiatus, the multiple flights would resume.
The subsidy may amount to $300,000 each for the Town and Ski Area. Manning said the Town has applied for a small community air service grant to offset the subsidy. Again, the continued flights to Los Angeles are part of a contract with Horizon Air that is still in the works.
Meanwhile, aviation business at Mammoth-Yosemite Airport has dropped. Manning said the aviation industry is down around 35% generally. He added that corporate executives who frequented Mammoth Airport in the past don’t want to be seen as taking junkets in today’s economic climate. Plus, when it’s time for company cutbacks, a jet is viewed as a luxury.
The drop in aviation business means fuel sales, hangar leases and tie-down fees all go down.
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