"What I do is coordinate all of his (Minto's) travel with our travel agency," Dahood said. As she spoke, Minto was in Texas on business.
The more travel choices, the happier Minto is and the smoother the Missoula-based holding company's business operates, Dahood said.
Business travel, the airline industry's most lucrative niche, is the backbone of the consistent, high-single-digit growth of Missoula International Airport.
Missoula airport executives and board members have been hard at work growing the airport and expanding service - most notably and recently with the addition of the budget leisure carrier Allegiant Air out of Las Vegas. The airport is actively courting Phoenix-based America West Airlines.
"America West completes the set," said Joe Easton, the airport's interim director.
It adds up to more choices for the traveling public and a strong indication that Missoula's economy will continue to grow; air service is a linchpin for continued prosperity.
But the airline industry is volatile. Major carriers might slash or eliminate service to the Missoula Valley for reasons that have nothing to do with the profitability of routes.
"You're not the tail that wags the dog," said Mike Boggs, an airline consultant at Portland, Ore.-based Meade & Hunt.
In passenger numbers, Missoula's airport ranks third in Montana, behind Bozeman and Billings.
The three markets are quite different, although population growth is a common factor. The growth of Gallatin Valley Field near Bozeman is mostly due to tourism and the second-home phenomenon, said director Ted Mathis.
Billings Logan International Airport draws from a much larger region, but the business there has a decidedly agricultural bent, much more so than Missoula, said Boggs, a longtime student of the region's airline industry. (He has done several studies for the Missoula airport.)
Missoula's prosperity fits into a larger national pattern in which economic activity is spreading from major metro areas into smaller cities, said Larry Swanson, an economist at the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West.
"That's Missoula's niche," Swanson said. And the airlines like it, too.
Missoula's isolation and burgeoning business environment make the city a solid plus for airlines. Business travelers, only 40 percent of the airline passengers, account for 70 percent of airline revenue, Boggs said. That's because businesses often schedule meetings on short notice, paying more attention to convenience rather than cost.
"Airlines would take one business traveler every day over three leisure travelers," he said.
But that trend can only continue if businesses are not at a competitive disadvantage by being in Missoula.
"Travel is also the Achilles heel," Swanson said. "Relatively good air service is making it all possible. If you take that out, it breaks down."
If ticket prices continue to escalate or if Missoula loses carriers or flights, the effect on Missoula's economy could be severe.
"We saw airfares rising pretty rapidly a year or two ago. That was my fear at the time," Swanson said.
But the trends appear to be solidly in Missoula's favor. The jets are getting smaller, the number of flights more frequent.
"It's called 'right-sizing the market' " said Phil Gee, a spokesman for America West.
Rather than flying one 196-seat aircraft twice a day, airlines are using a 50-seat jet four times a day, he said. More of the available seats are filled, and passengers like the convenience.
Low-cost America West has been growing steadily over the past several years and will add more markets this year, most of them out of its Las Vegas hub, Gee said. The airline offers 93 flights a day from Phoenix and 56 from Las Vegas. It already serves Billings and Kalispell.
The high price of fuel is the only dark spot for carriers such as America West which have winning formulas that include low-cost structures and lucrative niche markets.
"Fuel is a big problem right now; industrywide we're counting on losing money in 2005, just as we did in 2004 and 2003," Gee said.
Those high fuel costs - oil is at about $55 per barrel - have not yet been passed on to consumers, Boggs said.
"The elasticity of airline ticket prices is an amazing thing; it's hurting the airlines right now," Boggs said.
And that, in turn, could have an impact on Missoula's service. Rumors abound among airline analysts that the major airlines, including Delta and United, will be forced to sell their regional carriers.
Neither has a Missoula carrier. SkyWest Airlines, based in St. George, Utah, is a privately owned company that contracts with Delta.
"But you were on Wall Street, rating the (Missoula) airport on its risk. About the only risk the airport has is the volatility of the airline industry. Small airports all over the country get service changes because of larger changes in the airlines," Boggs said.
But those are forces that are beyond the control of airport interim director Easton and the Missoula County Airport Authority.
"We should be like a business. Our aim should be to increase revenue and traffic," said Cliff Larsen, chairman of the Airport Authority. The airport's operating budget last year was about $3.7 million. Other funds - many of which come from federal sources and are earmarked for specific projects - have added up to
$5 million to that yearly figure.
The airport is expanding its infrastructure. It has bought adjacent land and is pursuing more. One goal is to build another runway. Commercial hangar space has been expanded. More is being considered, especially for private users.
"Not to the extent of Bozeman," said Easton. Bozeman built 12 new hangars for private jets in 2004 and has more in the works for 2005.
"We've got growth issues," Easton said. There are times when the airport gets cramped for space, especially for parking.
But growth is a luxury in the airline industry today. The airport has the perfect combination of travelers, he said.
"We're one of the few airports in the country that never experienced a decline after September 11, 2001," Easton said.
"We're lucky."
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