APRIL 08, 2022, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
FlySalem seeking non-stop carriers to LA, Vegas, SF
BY CHARLES GLENN
Of the Keizertimes
The FlySalem steering committee had
an update for the Keizer city council at
the April 4 meeting. Committee chair
Brent DeHart spoke about the impact the
pandemic and supply chain shortages
have been having on the airline industry,
how McNary Field has coped with those
challenges, and their plans for the future.
Despite the logistical challenges pre-
sented by COVID, the airline industry is
not uniformly suffering a drawdown, he
said.
“The big airlines are shrinking, but
the smaller ones are expanding,” he
said. “The low-cost carriers are look-
ing to expand … these include carriers
like Frontier, Allegiant, Jet Blue, Ovello,
Breeze. There are four of these carriers
with very strong interest in Willamette
Valley service.”
Future destinations for these carriers
will depend on the arrangement they
reach with the airport, but he said the ser-
vice-to location would depend entirely
on the carrier.
“If it’s one carrier, it’s going to be the
LA basin,” he said. “If it’s another, it will
be Las Vegas. We won’t know until they
commit, and hopefully at least two of
them will – we’re getting optimistic, now.”
In addition to these two potential non-
stop destinations, Sky Harbor in Phoenix
and the San Francisco Bay Area are also
highly sought-after among commuters
in the Willamette Valley.
“It’s possible that within two years,
we’ll have non-stop destinations to all
four of those sunny locations,” DeHart
said.
He also noted that the Salem Airport
has been able to operate for the past
Courtesy Photo - Salem Reporter
four-and-a-half years using no additional
municipal money other than the annual
funds from the City of Salem already
dedicated to the airport.
“That is a dedicated fund, it’s import-
ant to note – the airport funding doesn’t
come out of the general fund,” he said.
DeHart noted that the airport has
applied for some federal grant money
to help with recruiting new carriers to
McNary Field, and he said it was the only
grant request that had backing from the
airline carriers, themselves. They unsuc-
cessfully applied for the grant twice
before.
“We’re thinking the third time’s
the charm,” he said. “We’re hoping for
$850,000 in federal grant money to
recruit commercial air service.”
DeHart added that, contrary to
popular opinion, the now-terminated
17-month relationship Salem Municipal
Airport had with Delta Airlines was a
success. He said the carrier’s reason for
leaving was entirely due to problems
with the specific aircraft designated for
routes in and out of McNary Field: the
Boeing 737D.
“It wasn’t just Delta – every airline had
to ground those planes,” DeHart said.
April 12 talent summit to focus on Future Ready Oregon package
The Higher Education Coordinating
Commission (HECC) and the Oregon
Workforce and Talent Development
Board (WTDB) are co-hosting the 2022
Oregon Talent Summit on April 12. This
year's summit will focus on Governor
Kate Brown's Future Ready Oregon, a
comprehensive $200 million investment
package recently passed by the Oregon
Legislature that supports the education
and training Oregonians need for fami-
ly-wage careers, prioritizing underserved
communities and equitable prosperity.
Registration is still open for this
in-person event, which will be held
from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. in Portland at the
Oregon Convention Center.
The HECC and the WTDB will play an
absolutely critical role in the implemen-
tation of Future Ready Oregon, and in
building an equitable economic recovery
for Oregon's workforce, said Governor
Brown.
Future Ready Oregon advances
opportunities for training that leads
to family-wage careers for historically
underserved communities, including
adult learners, dislocated workers and
youth. These investments bolster recruit-
ment, retention and career advance-
ment opportunities for key populations,
including people of color, women, people
with low incomes, rural communities,
veterans, people who are incarcerated or
were formerly incarcerated, persons with
disabilities, members of Oregon's nine
federally recognized tribes, older adults
and people who identify as members
of the LGBTQ+ community. It will fund
innovative equity-focused solutions serv-
ing workers in high-demand health care,
manufacturing, and technology industry
sectors. It will also bolster successful
existing programs to foster a diverse,
skilled workforce.
The summit has a track record of
bringing together hundreds of partici-
pants from the workforce system, educa-
tion system and employers for strategic
focus on emerging workforce needs, best
practices and solutions, with successful
events in 2018 and 2020. Participation
generally includes representatives from
business and industry, workforce and
talent development, postsecondary and
K-12 education, among others.