Idaho Falls still pursuing round-trip air service to Boise

The terminal at Idaho Falls Regional Airport.

Last week at the League of Women Voters' forum for City Council candidates (I'm running for Seat 2, as if you didn't already know) I was asked about Idaho Falls' air service and what it might take to get more flights and carriers. Since the candidates' answers were limited to one minute, it was kind of hard to go into much detail.

My short answer was that getting consistent air service into a community like Idaho Falls is a never-ending challenge. There's more than passenger numbers to consider. There are fuel costs, the size of the planes a carrier has in service and the money the carrier has invested in its fleet. The profit margins are very thin. The most pressing need for Idaho Falls is regular, affordable round-trip air service to Boise, but nobody has planes the right size to make such a route profitable.

For those of you who are more interested, here is a more detailed story.

A lot of cities the size of Idaho Falls would envy its three carriers providing jet service to major hubs and a technology base that provides a sizable number of business travelers.

But the very thing that is driving expansion of service to markets like Salt Lake City, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles has made it tough to keep regular, affordable air service going between Idaho Falls and Boise.

"That's still our number one priority -- regular service between Idaho Falls and Boise," said Craig Davis, manager of Idaho Falls Regional Airport. "The challenge is finding the company that has the right-sized aircraft."

Planes are getting bigger and the routes are getting longer. In the early 2000s, the average size of a regional commercial airplane was 37 seats. Today, it's 55, and those seats have to be paid for, said Jack Penning of Portland, Ore., director of market analysis for Sixel Consulting.

Horizon Air, which had an Idaho Fall-Boise route for years, pulled out in 2010. Seaport Air, a regional carrier, opened a route in July 2011 only to announce less than six months later they were leaving.

With a direct highway connection between the two cities, Seaport said there was a "tipping point" on price where potential passengers would opt to drive instead of fly. What is making the flight to Phoenix possible is the same thing that is making inland regional routes harder to maintain, Penning said. "Smaller regional markets have been squeezed out because of a lack of appropriate aircraft."

What would be ideal for an Idaho Falls-Boise route would be a plane like the 19-seat Beechcraft 1900 turboprops Silver Airways uses on its routes in Montana. But Penning is frank about the challenges. "Airlines are reluctant to move craft away from established routes," he said. "You've got to convince them you've got something that will be viable." Moreover, there are few long-term guarantees. Silver Airways, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., announced recently that it is dropping its service in Montana in December.

Idaho Falls loses a lot of potential passengers to Salt Lake City, estimating leakage of 35 percent. The closer a community is to a major hub, the smaller its airport is likely to be.

But the airport still has a few things working in its favor. A study by Sixell Consulting estimated there are 294,557 people within 60 minutes of Idaho Falls. Within two hours' drive time, that number expands to 665,359. Also there is the number of people traveling on government business, mainly for  the Idaho National Laboratory. Without the lab, the airport would be a lot smaller. As it stands, the business travel helps Idaho Falls get what it wants.

"If they call up Delta Airlines and say, 'We need this,' Delta is going to pay attention," said former IFRA director Len Nelson, who retired in 2012.

As the skies darken, construction work continues at Snake River Landing

Concrete slabs being poured at Scientech's new headquarters, two buildings to be joined by an enclosed walkway.

I passed through Snake River Landing today just to take a look at what's been done so far this year. It has been a busy year, for sure. Here are three photos, snapped on the fly, to give you an idea of the scope of the work that's been happening. As you can see, the weather is turning and one has to wonder how much more is going to get done before things turn frigid.

Also, it looks like MacKenzie River Pizza, at 1490 Milligan Road, will be opening in January. If that proves to be too long a wait, the one in Pocatello, at 4510 Pole Line Road, is slated to open in December.

Galusha Higgins & Galusha's new home, to be open after the first of the year. The accounting firm will be leaving its longtime downtown Idaho Falls location on B Street.

Banyan River Apartments, independent living housing for seniors from the same people who developed Rosselare at 12 Street and Hoopes Avenue.

Idaho Falls Q3 building permits down from 2012

Farewell to a friend and inspiration

Peg Reeves (1917-2013)

Before the week is over, I'd like to note the passing of my friend Peg Reeves, who died Wednesday at age 96.

Peg was a parishioner at my church, St. Luke's Episcopal, and one of my responsibilities as a vestryman was to make sure her hearing assistance device was always working. (I may make a motion at the next vestry meeting that her wireless receiver and earbud be retired and perhaps interred with her, if such things are allowed.)

The reason I mention her in BizMojo is she was one of my guiding lights in the mid-'90s when I was developing my style and tone for the weekly ShopTalk column in the Post Register, which I wrote for 12 years. Every Sunday at coffee hour Peg would have a question about some building she'd seen going up. I considered myself duty bound to find out -- how does one say no to a little old lady? -- but the dividend was that I would almost always have something to publish in ShopTalk.

After I left the paper a lot of people told me they missed my writing, which was why I started BizMojo Idaho two years ago. I missed the conversations with people like Peg that my writing afforded me.

Given her age, I don't think Peg ever read this blog or even looked at a computer, but that didn't matter because I could always talk to her in person on Sunday morning. I'll miss that, but will think of her anytime someone has a question about something they've seen around town.

Here is a link to her obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/peg-reeves.

Bill Gates makes quick tour of INL's Materials and Fuels Complex

Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates made a two-hour visit Wednesday afternoon to Idaho Falls to tour the Idaho National Laboratory's Materials and Fuels Complex.

In addition to everything else he does, Gates is the chairman of TerraPower LLC, a nuclear reactor startup company that has engaged INL to support certain design aspects of its traveling wave reactor. The visit Wednesday was arranged to demonstrate the lab's expertise and capabilities.

The Web page for TerraPower LLC, which has engaged the Idaho National Laboratory in a cooperative research agreement.

“Getting to visit INL was really enlightening," Gates told INL employees after his tour. "It was amazing to see reactor fuel characterization and how it can be conducted safely in a hot cell environment.”

INL has signed several Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with TerraPower over the past few years. These agreements allow TerraPower to receive technical insight and use the lab's capabilities.

At MFC, Gates toured the Fuel Conditioning Facility and the Hot Fuel Examination Facility, met with some of the researchers involved with TerraPower-related projects, and learned about some of the other nuclear-related research and capabilities available at INL.

Gates also spent nearly an hour talking with 250 INL researchers and scientists. He shared some background on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was established in 2000, about the time he stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft. He said now he works full-time on the Gates Foundation and part-time at Microsoft.

“TerraPower has many cooperative projects, and there are lots of partnerships, but our work with INL is singularly important,” he said.

TerraPower has gained attention for both its traveling wave reactor design and the financial backing of clean technology investors. Several CRADAs established over the past few years enable the company to receive technical insight from the nation’s nuclear energy laboratories.

"We enjoyed showing off our experienced researchers and one-of-a-kind capabilities for Mr. Gates," said INL Director John Grossenbacher. "His interest in nuclear energy and INL's contributions helps the industry's future and reinforces the value of DOE's national laboratory complex."

"As the lead national laboratory for nuclear energy, INL focuses on challenging technologies that require long-term investigations by multi-disciplinary teams," said Kemal Pasamehmetoglu, INL's associate laboratory director for Nuclear Science and Technology. "When private companies such as TerraPower show interest in what we do and are willing to use our assistance in their efforts, we know that we are doing our job and making a meaningful impact on nuclear energy development."

TerraPower is a privately funded company headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Since it was founded in 2007, it has grown to nearly 70 full-time professionals who engage diverse technical consultants and partners to responsibly improve options for global access to clean, secure and affordable electricity.

For more information, visit TerraPower at www.terrapower.com.