AIRPORT: Commercial service too costly, unnecessary

I have been a professional pilot for more than 50 years and have been based and flown out of Coeur d’Alene since 1979. I spent more than 10 years as a member of the Airport Advisory Board and have followed airport issues now for 44 years.

I’m not sure who has come up with this latest plan suggesting that there will be commercial service at our airport, but I am sure that it will never happen. The list of expenditures required for the required infrastructure — employees, terminal lease, airport fire protection, TSA security and more just don’t make sense when the airlines already have all of these items in place at Spokane.

It is about a 40-minute drive from Coeur d’Alene to the Spokane airport. I can assure you that a huge population living in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc., have a drive of that long or more to get to their airline airport. Backers of this idea have admitted that there have been no inquiries from any of the airlines regarding establishing service here. The commercial airlines already have a difficult time showing a profit and I can guarantee you that they will not incur the costs involved to save you 30 or so minutes of driving.

AL GOODWIN

Coeur d’Alene