STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
A9
Central Oregon attractive for new airlines OSU lands $10M
By SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
Submitted photo
The airline Avelo began direct fl ights from Burbank, Califor-
nia, to Redmond in May. It’s not the only smaller airline that
sees potential in Central Oregon.
rated resort areas like Teth-
erow, Eagle Crest, Prong-
horn, Black Butte Ranch
and Sunriver — collected
$11.5 million in tran-
sient room taxes, a 51.9%
increase over the previous
year. In Bend, the transient
room tax collection for fi s-
cal year 2021 was $11.1
million, a 26.2% increase
from the previous year.
Deschutes County col-
lects an 8% transient room
tax and Bend collects a
10.4% lodging tax for each
night.
“What we’re seeing
because of the pandemic
and COVID-19 is there’s
been a shift by smaller,
boutique airlines to move
into the Western outdoor
market,” said Zach Bass,
Redmond Airport director.
This past summer Red-
mond saw about as many
passengers as it did before
March 2020 when the pan-
demic caused the closure
of businesses and travel as
a way to curb the spread
of the virus. In July 2019,
102,000 passengers passed
through the airport, com-
pared to July 2020 when a
mere 37,000 came through.
This July, however, there
were 105,000 passengers in
the Redmond Airport, Bass
said.
There are seven airlines
providing about 25 fl ights a
day out of Redmond, Bass
said. The number of fl ights
tends to fl uctuate depend-
ing on time of year. Carriers
include Alaska Air, Ameri-
can Airlines, Delta Air Lines,
Allegiant Airlines, Bou-
tique Air, United Airlines
and Avelo. Bass said the air-
port is working with Amer-
ican to see if it will operate
direct fl ights from Redmond
to Dallas that could start this
spring.
Travis Christ, Avelo Air-
lines head of marketing, said
that since May, the direct
fl ights from Redmond to
Burbank, California, three
times a week have done well
for the newcomer. The air-
line, which also launched
fl ights in Medford and
Eugene, has made a business
plan out of fl ying from non-
hub airports near large cities
to popular visitor destina-
tions, like Bend, Christ said.
Avelo uses 189-seat Boe-
ing 737-800 aircraft out of
Redmond, one of 17 destina-
tions the airline off ers across
the Western United States.
Additional destinations are
being added. Fort Collins,
Colorado, is being added this
week and will go from New
Haven, Connecticut to mul-
tiple destinations in Florida
come November.
Launching a new air-
line isn’t easy, but it wasn’t
nearly as diffi cult as Avelo
anticipated. Pent up travel
demand among visitors
spurred travel in the United
States since many interna-
tional locations were closed
due to COVID-19 restric-
tions, Christ said.
“We’re the new way
to Los Angeles,” Christ
said in an interview. “Peo-
for hemp research
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — Oregon
State University’s Global Hemp
Innovation Center has received
a $10 million USDA grant to
study how and where the ver-
satile crop can support rural
economies across four Western
states.
The fi ve-year project was
one of 15 proposals to receive
funding from the National
Institute of Food and Agricul-
ture, which awarded $146 mil-
lion for sustainable agricultural
research.
OSU established the Global
Hemp Innovation Center in
2019 — one year after hemp was
decriminalized in the 2018 Farm
Bill — to provide scientifi c data
necessary for spurring investment
in the nascent industry.
The center combines more
than 40 OSU faculty in 19 aca-
demic disciplines to research all
aspects of hemp, from cultiva-
tion to end products.
Jeff Steiner, associate direc-
tor of the center, described hemp
as being locked away in a time
capsule for more than 80 years
after it was banned in the U.S.
It is the center’s job to fi nd out
how hemp can be incorporated
into modern agricultural prac-
tices and production systems.
That in turn helps to drive
new markets for the crop, includ-
ing essential oils, grain and fi ber.
“While enthusiasm for hemp
has grown, there is still a tremen-
dous lack of knowledge about
the crop,” Steiner said.
For this project, OSU is part-
nering with eight other institu-
tions to match hemp genetics
and best agricultural practices
with growing areas east of the
Cascades and Sierra Nevada in
Oregon, Washington, California
and Nevada.
It all starts with the plant,
Steiner said. Hemp grown pri-
marily for oil extraction is not
genetically the same as hemp
grown for grain or fi ber. Opti-
mum growing conditions for
one type may not be suitable for
another.
What’s more, Steiner said
hemp must fi t into local agricul-
tural systems and crop rotations
so it does not displace other
commodities, such as hay and
potatoes in the Klamath Basin.
“It’s not like we have to start
from scratch, but we have to
apply all this knowledge and
make it work for hemp,” Steiner
said.
Researchers are also look-
ing at where to add processing
capacity for hemp, and whether
those facilities can be built in
rural and tribal communities.
Tribal partners include the
Confederated Tribes of Warm
Springs in Central Oregon,
which has taken a keen inter-
est in hemp to boost economic
development.
“The Warm Springs Tribe
has interest in exploring and
expanding our agricultural
opportunities in hemp pro-
duction, and this is one ave-
nue to achieve this,” said Lau-
rie Danzuka, cannabis project
coordinator for the tribe.
Danzuka said the collabora-
tion will allow tribal farmers to
identify potential suitable uses
for hemp and utilize best farm-
ing practices for its production.
Steiner said the up-front par-
ticipation of tribes and other
rural communities in the project
is critical to their success.
“The potential economic
opportunities this new com-
modity may have presents tre-
mendous potential for rural
communities, and our proj-
ect has set out to ensure those
opportunities are equally avail-
able and relevant to all kinds of
farmers,” Steiner said.
He pointed to studies indi-
cating the global industrial
hemp market could reach $36
billion by 2026. Part of that
relies on hemp’s ability to tap
into other markets, such as the
nutraceutical industry and the
textile business.
“It’s a matter of fi nding how
hemp can be more economical
than existing products in those
sectors,” Steiner said. “There’s a
huge potential for where this can
be fi t in.”
GRANT
COUNTY
VETERANS
SERVICES
541.620.8057
530 East Main Street #5, John Day, OR
S261920-1
S264770-1
BEND — Central Ore-
gon’s strong, upwardly
mobile population is attract-
ing attention from smaller,
boutique airlines that see
business potential and are
adding nonstop fl ights to the
Redmond Airport.
The new fl ights on
aha! ExpressJet Airlines
and Avelo that were just
announced, are direct, elim-
inating the need for connec-
tions and crowded airport
hubs or long drives to larger
airports. The new airlines
joined Allegiant’s return to
Redmond in 2019, when it
announced it would fl y from
Redmond Airport to Las
Vegas and Mesa, Arizona.
Attracting new airlines
during the pandemic plays
a role in keeping Central
Oregon top of mind for air-
lines and travelers who are
courted by the Central Ore-
gon Air Service Team, a
group that includes the air-
port, the Economic Devel-
opment for Central Oregon,
Visit Bend, Visit Cen-
tral Oregon, and the Red-
mond and Bend chambers
of commerce. Central Ore-
gon is attractive to visi-
tors, especially during the
pandemic, because its out-
doors lends itself to physi-
cal distancing.
“It’s a sign of the
regions’ success to see new
airlines and fl ights launch-
ing from Redmond Air-
port,” said Julia Theisen,
Visit Central Oregon CEO,
in an email. “Airlines are
attracted to Redmond Air-
port for a number of rea-
sons, including growth in
the region by visitors and
in-migration, airport fees
that are aff ordable ... and
the eff orts we make to meet
with our airline partners as
often as possible to keep
Central Oregon front of
mind.”
In fi scal year 2021,
which runs from July 2020
to June 2021, Deschutes
County — the unincorpo-
ple are eager to get out of
the big, congested airports,
with expensive parking and
crowds.
“We want to serve these
areas that have been under-
served, and it was good for-
tune for us that a lot of the
bigger city folks moved to
these other areas, causing an
infl ux of in-migration.”
The city of Redmond did
off er Avelo $25,000 in mar-
keting support, matching
money the airline is spend-
ing to drum up interest
among travelers.
Also starting in Novem-
ber is aha! by ExpressJet Air-
lines, the airline’s hotel and
air leisure brand, that off ers
nonstop fl ights from the
Reno-Tahoe to Redmond.
The three -times -a -week
direct fl ights avoid layovers
and crowds. Choosing to fl y
to Redmond was easy as the
destinations are similar, said
Tim Sieber, head of aha!
ExpressJet Airlines business
unit.
Both destinations focus
on outdoor activities. Both
destinations have disposable
income. Both destinations
have a robust food and beer
scene.
“It made sense to link the
two destinations by an air-
plane,” Sieber said. “The
two destinations are very
similar, and the direct fl ight
provides an opportunity to
exchange people between
two markets that share a lot
of the same interests.”
With an eye on the travel
data, ExpressJet said it rec-
ognized that Reno-Tahoe
had a lot of visitors from
Bend and Redmond who
had to either drive or make a
connection in Portland, Sie-
ber said.
“We see an opportunity
for providing direct fl ights
that avoid time in airports
and the potential exposure
to COVID-19,”Sieber said.
“We think people want that
and they want to go to less
crowded places for activi-
ties. Clearly there’s a lot of
pent -up demand for short
trips.”