Prescott eNews

Horizon Air will be starting service from Prescott on September 8.

Prescott Mayor Jack Wilson and Prescott Valley Mayor Harvey Skoog joined together in a press conference today as the details of the new non-stop air flight service from Prescott to Los Angeles on Horizon Air were announced. Speaking for Horizon Air was Dan Russo, the Director of Marketing and Communications, who explained how a one-time Embry Riddle student, Clint Ostler, now the Horizon Air Manager of Market Planning, helped encourage the airline to consider Prescott as they expanded their services to northern Arizona. (Here is a link to download a press release and additional background on Horizon Air .)

It was an opportunity to bring good news regarding the airport that many in the community have wanted to hear for a long time, and Mayor Wilson started things out by saying, "As Mayor of Prescott, I am delighted that Horizon Air will soon be providing round trip service to Los Angeles. This new connection is equally awaited by our businesses travel to California. We also expect increased tourism from residents of California as well as a more convenient route for our greater Prescott area residents visiting, vacationing in California."

"Horizon has a stellar track record in researching demand for services and has always succeeded in all new markets it has entered," Wilson said with approval. "I applaud Horizon for choosing the Prescott Regional Airport as a new destination... I look forward to the initial flights to Los Angeles in early September. I believe that in the future, we will look back at those flights with the realization that they were merely the beginning of a much larger relationship that greatly benefited both Horizon Air and the greater Prescott region."

"Today, we take the first step in what I truly believe will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship for Horizon Air and the Prescott Regional airport. I've used the word, 'regional' a couple of times and I'm serious about that... I want to turn it over to Harvey Skoog, from Prescott Valley, who is participating financially."

"Thank you, Jack. And actually, I personally am not participating financially, I wish I could swing it," Mayor Skoog said with a smile. "I'm very pleased, of course, as Jack is, to be here to participate in the special announcement. It's good news that Horizon Air will be here to serve us, and we're glad to have them come. It's a great benefit to have Horizon here. Horizon has a great reputation, I understand they've been around since 1981, and that it's now one of the larger regional airlines around. They certainly have a good record of safety. I believe that the average age of their fleet is around 6 years... they have first class equipment. Their routes, destinations, will include areas from Oregon down to Southern California, including the wine and tourism areas. And I would like to wish Horizon the best of luck, a lot of success, long service time, and profitability, even in these tough times. Horizon, thank you for coming."

Dave Mauer, from the Prescott Chamber of Commerce was also on hand, and said, "Let me restress just a couple of words, business and tourism. I think that from not just the Prescott Chamber, but also from Prescott Valley and Chino Valley, we are excited about this for our members, the business community and also for the tourism which is really this entire area. Prescott Area Coalition for Tourism already markets to the Southern California area, as many of you know, and this now provides that direct link that we've missed up until this time. It's an exciting time, unfortunately we have to wait until September for this to happen, but that'll be here before we know it. Thank you to Horizon for selecting Prescott for this service, and we hope to provide lots of passengers for you in the very near future."

Dan Russo, Director of Marketing and Communications speaks, while Mayor Wilson (left) and Mayor Skoog (right) look on.

Russo then got up to make it all official. "We're very happy to be here and make today's announcment, which is on September 8, we will begin serving Prescott with one daily flight to Los Angeles. I believe it is at 6:45 in the morning, get into Los Angeles at 8:20, and then the return flight will come back non-stop again at 7:55 pm, getting in here at 9:30."

"Now, Los Angeles and the Southern California area itself is a big destination for people from this area," Russo said, "I mean, Los Angeles and all the surrounding cities there, there's statistical data that indicates that a lot of people drive to Phoenix and then fly to Los Angeles to get to various metropolitan areas. And that certainly is going to be a reason for people to use this service, rather than drive, or drive to Phoenix and get on an airplane."

Russo pointed out that, "Los Angeles is really just the beginning and is an access point to all kinds of other service that you can connect to rather than driving to Phoenix and then connecting. We have hourly service from Los Angeles to Seattle, for example. Many flights a day to Portland, flights to Boise, Reno, Puerto Vallarta, La Paz... These are just places served by Horizon and Alaska."

"And we have a big network of airline partners where you can check in right here in Prescott, buy one ticket, pay one fare, check your bag all the way through, and go to virtually any place in the world through Los Angeles International Airport," Russo explained. "I think you all know that Los Angeles International is one of the biggest international terminals in the world and you can get to just about any place in the world from there and now you will have a connection directly from here to Los Angeles to those places. Now you won't have to put them on a shuttle bus from Phoenix, but will instead have them fly right in here to your home town."

Russo then spoke about the plane, "The aircraft we're going to be using is a Bombardier Q400... It's a Canadian-made airplane, 76 seat, high-speed turbo prop, and... it's not your father's turbo prop. This is a whole different airplane than you've ever seen before. Like I say, 76 seats, 2 x 2, which means that nobody has to get stuck in a middle seat, flies about the same speed as a jet. First of all, it's very quiet, it'll be a good neighbor for you. In terms of a comparable 70-seat plane, it is quieter, it gets 30% better fuel economy than a 70-seat jet, and it puts out 30% less emissions, so it's a good neighbor airplane. It's a really new technology inside and out the cockpit has all the avionics that you would find on any kind of a jet, with all the latest navigational aids and things like that. We think you're really going to enjoy it when you come aboard with us."

Clint Ostler, Manager, Market Planning, did the demographic research to determine that Prescott would be a good fit for Horizon Air.

But, how much will it cost? "One of the things that people ask us about, of course, is fares, and we think that the convenience of flying out of Prescott is going to be reason enough, but you have to make it affordable, too. Our pricing policies will be quite simple. We're going to keep an eye on what the price is out of Phoenix, and make it a good value to fly from here. There's a cost to fly out of Phoenix, taking a shuttle, or taking a car and parking there. We can't match prices out of Phoenix and never will, but we're going to keep that price range out of here at a very reasonable amount, so when you do the math and say, 'Well, I could pay this much and be on a shuttle, or drive my own car at $4 a gallon in gas and pay to park in Phoenix, versus flying up here and having what I'm sure is going to be a very low stress and low hassle experience in getting on our airplane,' you'll make the choice of flying out of your home town here in Prescott. We're three months away from starting our service on September 8, we have our schedules and fares in the computer now, and I'll just give you a few of them. To Los Angeles the lowest fare right now is $79, to Portland or Seattle, $149, this is one way, and to Reno, $139. To Boise or Spokane, $159. Those are the fares today. I will just tell you that airline businesses are experiencing the same thing you are when you're going to get fuel for your car, which means that every day it gets more expensive, and fuel airfares are reflective of fuel costs and they change from time to time, so if you know you are going to be traveling, I suggest you make your plans early. The other thing that people ask us about is frequent flier points."

So, how did they end up in Prescott? Russo explained, "A little bit of history with Clint here. Very frankly, the first place we looked at was Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon and all that stuff. But, in researching that, we also took a good look at this area as well, and Clint brought to our attention the population here, the growing population, the economy here, proximity to Phoenix, and how when we looked at Flagstaff, it would have a bit of up and down with tourism to the Grand Canyon, and how could we smooth that out? And this area became a very good choice to make that total package of services successful. So, shake Cliff's hand here, because really his research brought this to our attention."

Ostler attended Embry Riddle from 1996-2000, and worked for Mesa Airlines during his college education. As a matter of fact, he even helped build the ticket counter that still stands today in the terminal. Ostler described how Horizon chose to land in Prescott, "When we looked at the demographics of the region, we started with Flagstaff, and it was kind of their idea, and we noticed a bit of a seasonality dip during the winter, so we tried to find markets or regions that could balance that a little bit. And Prescott's population and the demographic kind of fit, it's a comparable size to other markets that we fly into today, so we thought that pairing with Flagstaff would be a good solution."

So, will people also be able to use Horizon to get from Flagstaff to Prescott, or vice-versa? Russo smiled and nodded. He noted that it was not Horizon's main clientele, but for Prescott students attending NAU, or people doing business in Flagstaff, it might be ideal.

By the way, even in this time of cost-cutting and skimping by the airlines, Horizon Air offers free Starbucks coffee in the morning, and complimentary beer and wine on the afternoon flights.

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