Dear Editor,
Let me see if I have this straight: Safford Airport needs $655,000 to maintain air service to Phoenix until June 2026.
They had about $1,150,000 to spend on the service this year. They have $95,000 left.
They’ve reduced the two round-trip flights a day to Phoenix to one in an effort to save money and continue service in a limited capacity.
Sounds ominous. Or maybe it’s just reality.
If there isn’t demand to maintain the air service, and the current situation is continually losing money, then is it really the smart move to try to prop it up with additional tax revenues and donated funds?
What makes anyone think this tactic would work? Is the City Council expecting a dramatic increase in air traffic between Safford and Phoenix? If so, where are the stats to support this opinion?
Let’s face it, commercial air service between Safford and Phoenix has been tried a couple of times before, and hasn’t succeeded. There simply wasn’t an adequate customer base to make it profitable.
Let’s not turn this thing into another perpetually city tax-funded enterprise. The community of Safford isn’t the federal government, where it can print, borrow, spend, and tax at will.
There’s a limited clientele with limited amounts of money. If there is insufficient interest in supporting the air service, then that’s the facts of life.
Deal with it in a responsible manner — do not continue to throw good money after bad — and then suddenly wake up someday and exclaim “Damn, we didn’t see this coming!!!”
Mike Bibb
Safford
