Safford Regional Airport to debut daily passenger air service to Phoenix in January

After roughly half an hour of discussion during an executive session behind closed doors, the Safford City Council reconvened Monday night and listened to Airport Manager Cameron Atkins explain the pitch.  

Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines will offer two daily flights from Safford to Phoenix on a 9-seat Cessna Caravan turboprop aircraft. According to its website, the airline is the oldest aerial tour company on earth and has flown more than 100 million passengers through places like the Grand Canyon. It has celebrated its 90th anniversary and has terminals in Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon West, Page, and Boulder City, Nevada.

To help assist with the implementation of air service, the airport will need to provide baggage handling and other customer service tasks. To accommodate that, Atkins recommended reclassifying a part-time airport operations officer position to full-time and adding a new part-time position. He said a customer service contract with the airline would partially offset supporting costs. Atkins also recommended entering into an agreement with Grand Canyon Airlines with a monthly revenue guarantee (MRG) of no more than $172,800 to offset any deficits in revenue not generated by ticket sales and “to allow the city to market tickets at reasonable prices to encourage use by area residents and businesses.” Atkins did not give an example of how much the tickets will cost.  

To help pay for the air service, the city received an $800,000 federal grant under the Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) in October and a $100,000 grant from the Freeport Community Investment Fund last year.

According to Atkins, expenses, including the MRG, air service marketing, and employees, will be $1,097,000, while revenue, including the $900,000 in grant funds, will be $1.1 million, leaving a net income of $3,000 at the end of the fiscal year in June 2025. He requested the council, therefore, utilize $961,000 from contingency funds to start the air service contract and said he believed those funds would be reimbursed through flight revenues by the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, $900,000 will be from grant funds for this first year.

After receiving the unanimous support from the council, Atkins informed them that the airport plans to start its daily passenger air service beginning Jan. 6, 2025.