Letter to the Editor
An airport you can (NOT) count on
Dear Editor:
Today was a beautiful summer afternoon with light breezes and warm clear skies as we walked up towards the terminal at Mammoth-Yosemite Airport. A fellow walking out stopped us saying “L.A.?” Referring to whether that was where we were headed. “Cancelled.” What? He said he was told the plane was “broken down in Mexico.” He also mentioned that this was the third time he’s had a flight canceled during with this same “broken down in Mexico” line. He believes they do it when they don’t have enough passengers booked for a given flight. Inside, we’re confirmed that the flight is canceled and that there’s nothing they can do to help rebook the two other connecting flights that my girlfriend will have to reschedule. Love that kind of service. Not to mention the doctor’s appointment and hotel reservation that will now also have to be changed. A courtesy call hours earlier would sure’ve been nice. Could’ve just driven to L.A. with more notice. In fact it seems really poor that there wasn’t an earlier phone call if the flight really was broken down in Mexico, they would’ve known for hours. Then a friend of ours happens to walk in only to find out that now he too will have to change his plans and instead drive the 5 hours to LAX because he can just barely make it in time for his flight at 11pm. Thanks Alaska Airlines for screwing up peoples schedules to save a few bucks of operation cost. Perhaps someone needs to make a more honest assessment of the viability of Mammoth-Yosemite Airport. Once we talk with our booking agent she says in no uncertain terms that the plane is not broken down in Mexico, they simply didn’t have enough passengers and canceled the flight. That’s service you canNOT count on.
My girlfriend has flown in and out of Mammoth-Yosemite Airport a total of 4 times. Last time there was a wind cancellation on her return flight forcing her to wait in the Bay Area for 4 days for the next flight, and this time, with no notice there’s a cancellation of her departure flight throwing her entire travel plan out the window. 50% success rate so far for her is really really bad when it comes to making critical plans. Then you factor in that one of the times she did land was probably the scariest landing of her life. And she’s flown laps around the world in airmiles.
Clearly, no matter how beautiful the flight is, or how good that free beer might taste, you can’t count on Mammoth-Yosemite Airport. If you’re setting up travel plans that don’t have room for error, save yourself the stress and don’t bother. Go to Reno, drive to L.A., or San Francisco. Go to a real airport, and leave our little hobby airport for the times that don’t matter so much. You’ll likely save money in the process since rescheduling costs lots of money and headaches.
David Huebner
Mammoth Lakes
The $45 million dollar nightmare. thanks Rusty and John Eastman for NOTHING!
Please do tell us what the four Admin and Operations Town Personnel at Mammoth Yosemite Airport have to do with the fact that the carrier, in this case Alaska Airlines, could not complete their scheduled flight/s?
Fact is, absolutely NOTHING! The four personnel (I being one of them btw) who staff the Admin, Maint and ARFF operations at MYA do not nor can we control what happens with the carrier’s scheduling and maintenance issues.
This is just another example of the continued totally inappropriate and misdirected finger pointing that prevails in this town towards the Staff at MYA.
BTW… apparently your girl friend nor you have ever flown out of any “real airport” equal in size to ours in Alaska, North Dakota, Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Northern Canada, Indonesia, Southwest Asia, Central and South America etc etc etc where the percentages of cancellations due to weather and maintenance issues far out number the completed scheduled flights and the record of completed flights in the past four years here at MYA. Fact.
I have flown in and out of town more times then I can count on both Alaska and United and found the personalized service to be exceptional. Yes I have had close to 50% of my flights cancelled but I book with that risk factor calculated into my decision. If you must be there at a given time – driving is still the most dependable option – And having the ability to drive only 6 hours to reach our extended obligations is why we love Mammoth
“If you must be there at a given time – driving is still the most dependable option”. Like if you’re on vacation and have to be back at work later? Makes you wonder why the town subsidizes the airlines. They shouldn’t.
What a whiney, ridiculous and contradictory letter. Complaining about a flight that was cancelled due to high winds and then going on to whine about a completed flight’s scary landing is just stupid. And when maintenance issues occur, aircraft are going to be allocated to flights with the highest load factors, that’s just the reality of the airline business, and it has nothing to do with problems at MYA.
People in this town need to get real with regard to the airport. Yes, mistakes have been made, but the way out of the hole we are in is not in cutting off our nose to spite our face. I skied nearly 150 days on the hill this year and met more foreign and out of state visitors than ever. I made a point of asking all of them how they got here, and almost without exception they flew into MYA. This is huge for MMSA and the town of Mammoth Lakes going forward.
Further, as locals we are darn lucky to even have air service to bitch about. Time to get behind the airport folks, and for all to recognize that it is a vital part of the town’s future.
Eyenever Sanyo: Anecdotal evidence is fine for happy hour expositions. Show us real numbers based on actual flight data. And correlate that data with actual skier days, town revenues and expenditures for the airport.
Maybe you are seeing something that nobody else is seeing — and maybe you are just using your own personal experience to construct trends that don’t really exist.
Or maybe you were paid by MMSA to say that…..
Ken Warner:
What trends are these, or should I say those that supposedly do not exist that, you speak of Ken?
When is the last time you came down to the airport and spent some time with the staff that actually operate the facilities? Come on down Ken and take a look at the REAL books that give the recorded factual trends of stats, from both the airlines, for the past four years. Fact is Ken, MYA enplanements are and have consistently been on the increase. Some 33% on the avg per year since Horizon and Sky West began their services.
Again Ken, come on down and see for yourself. Then you can be the first to come back to these forums and tell a whole different and real story. Not fabricated negative propaganda that continues to proliferate from the same crowd that have NEVER been down here to educate themselves on the realities of MYA.
Okay, so anecdotal observation is only worthy of ‘happy hour expositions,’ but your three ‘maybes,’ the third of which is completely off the wall, are totally legit. Whatever, I suppose every small town has an internet curmudgeon or two. 🙂
The fact is this town is never going to move beyond its insane and unsustainable in the long-term dependence on weekend warriors without air service, and what we are seeing now are baby steps. Of course there are growing pains, but I work in the ski and snowboard media and regularly travel to many resorts throughout North America. In addition, my late wife was a regional airline executive, so my perspective on this issue is grounded in real world experience.
There is a good reason why small western towns with world class ski areas subsidize air service, and Mammoth is better positioned than most to make the model work. All this bitching and moaning among us locals, perfectly illustrated in this letter to the editor by the young, silver spooned, faux hippy, David Huebner, is extremely counter-productive.
Rick, again thanks for your offer. That’s the kind of transparency that the Sheet is calling for. And I may soon take you up on your offer.
But why not put this information up on the web? Let everybody see. If I’m wrong about what I imagine the airport is really contributing to the local economy, I’d like to have better information. I don’t enjoy living with incorrect assumptions.
I don’t understand how spending time with your staff or on the premises of the airport would give me any real information. I’ve been down there several times and left just as ignorant as I was before. I’m sure your staff are professional at what they do. I’m sure you are professional at what you do. But feet on the ground at the airport really doesn’t give me any real information.
The essence of my view of the airport is that it will require too much money to develop into a full time regional air hub. TOML just doesn’t have that kind of money. A lot of other smarter people than me feel the same way and have made convincing arguments.
Further, the airport has been under development for over a decade and you still don’t have an approved airport layout plan. What does it take to do that?
Bishop airport has much more potential as a regional airport. It’s already got three runways; has more room for development; is lower and has better weather and therefore safer. Is more accessible to more people. And already has air freight service — I’ve been told — which is a major component of air service.
I think Bishop airport should be developed by a cooperative effort of Inyo and Mono Counties. And if TOML and MMSA would rid themselves of their delusions of grandeur and push in the same direction, maybe that would happen.
Given the subsidies that are payed by TOML and MMSA and Mono Co., MMH is now just a terminal for charter flights.
The information on the web shows that in 2010, there were about 20,000 passengers (enplanements) at MMH. MMSA had about 1,500,000 skier days. That’s about 1.3% of the total skier days. Or .65% if those enplanments were round trips. And most of those people would have come up here anyway. That’s basically noise in the statistics.
Surveys I’ve seen (a while ago) suggested that many of those passengers were second home owners. It’s only conjecture how much each enplanement contributes to the local economy.
Proponents of the MMH fundamental argument is the benefit to community and economy. If that is true, why are the revenue intakes from TOT and sales tax diminishing? The last good year was 2005/06 — before air service began and have been diminishing since — with air service. And those years of diminishing revenue were very good ski years. Look at the town budget summary.
http://www.ci.mammoth-lakes.ca.us/documents/3/35/194/07%20General%20Fund%20pI.pdf
A lot of people think I’m wrong about all those views. Maybe they are right and I am wrong. There should be a real, objective analysis that proves the worth of MMH. All we the people have heard so far are hyperbole and wild claims and questionable comparisons with places in Colorado which is completely different than the SoCal market TOML and MMSA tap. There’s only 9 million people in all of Colorado. There’s 9 million people in LA County alone.
Show me and the rest of us why MMHis worthy of further development and even more money invested by TOML. Post the real numbers on the web. Show us why MMH is worthy of continued investment. Tell me how I have benefited from all the public money spent on MMH. Tell me why that money would not have been better spent on an Olympic class swimming pool that would complete the high altitude triathlon training regime (for example).
I would prefer to believe that all the money spent on MMH has not been a waste. Show us all the real numbers.
Or just call me clever names and enjoy your own wit…..
Alaskan Airlines at Mammoth is a bad joke, my friend was flying out and had a connection to Florida out of LAX, the same story beautiful calm day, flight cancelled.
I ended up driving her to LAX so she didn’t miss her flight. I’ve flown all over the world including tiny airports in the Andes and we’ve flown out of those in snow storms and never had a problem, maybe Alaskan needs to be hauled over the coals, but like someone said sometime ago if there is a Gregory booked on the flight even in a blizzard they will take off !