Business View Magazine | December 2018

168 169 CRATER LAKE – KLAMATH REGIONAL AIRPORT sion by voters to approve the sale of $50,000 worth of bonds to build an airport,” says Busi- ness Manager, Linda Tepper. “That was kind of the beginning of aviation across the country, and the citizens of Klamath Falls decided that they wanted to be part of that trend. It took a couple of years before the Airport was actual- ly constructed; we had a couple of gravel run- ways and one large hangar in the beginning.” “Probably what really started the Airport growing was in 1942, when the Navy selected it for a naval airbase,” Tepper continues. “That actually jump-started a lot of development and our long history with the military. After WWII, the Navy actually stopped the mission they were doing, but not long after the Navy transition, the Air Force started operations. So, the Air Force has been with us in some form or fashion, pretty much uninterrupted, since then, and it’s now the Air National Guard that’s a military presence on the field.” In addition to the military and general avia- tion aircraft at Crater-Lake Klamath Regional Airport, the Airport is also home to two car- go companies, Ameriflight (UPS) and FedEx; Century Aviation, a FBO and charter company; AirLink, which provides critical care trans- port; Fairmount Aviation (recently purchased by Century Aviation), which provides hangar space for corporate aircraft; Pelican Aviation, a flight school; and U.S. Forest Service Tanker base. Currently, there is no commercial ser- vice at the Airport - a situation Barsalou and Tepper would both like to see change. “Our first commercial air service started in 1947, with United Airlines and we had service, uninterrupted, until June of 2014,” Tepper explains. “We lost our United Express service at that time and it took us almost two years to get it back.We got service back by PenAir (Peninsula Airways), and they lasted not quite a year. So, since August of 2017, we’ve lacked commercial air service.” One reason for the dearth of commercial traf- fic is the Airport’s location. It’s 70 miles east of Medford, Oregon, a larger city, which has made it difficult to attract and retain commercial service at Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport. Klam- ath Falls residents see Rogue Valley Internation- al-Medford Airport as a more viable option for commercial air service, even though it’s a one- hour and 15 minute drive from their homes. Tepper explains that Medford’s much larger population has translated into the ability to sup- port more airlines and more destinations. And the resulting competition leads to lower fares. “When people have to fly into here, they (the airlines) charge a little bit more and as a result, that be- comes a big deal,” remarks Barsalou. “So, it seems that even if folks have to drive in the winter time over a mountain pass, they’ll do it if they can get a flight that’s $20 cheaper.” “That’s a difficult battle for us; to be able to provide something here, locally, that is attractive to our customer base,” adds Tepper. “And of course, the commercial industry airline trend, which is moving to larger aircraft, makes it even more dif- ficult for a smaller community to fill those planes to a profitable level where the airlines feel that