Proceeds support air service to Sun Valley, trickle down Valley-wide
BY ERIC VALENTINE
Ski resort towns require far more than snow-covered mountains to thrive. One could say “it takes a village” to make this community run well. The reality is: it takes even more than that. It takes people who don’t live here, too.
Getting those tourists here safely, conveniently and affordably during winter depends significantly on reliable air travel. And that’s why the Fly Sun Valley Alliance and the Sun Valley Resort partner up each year to present “Ski For Air Service Day.”
What is it? For Jan. 26, all-day ski lift tickets for Baldy and Dollar mountains will be reduced from $145 to just $50 and proceeds from the sale go toward the improvement of air service at Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN).
Where can you get these discounted tickets? A limited number of discounted tickets will be available at the following locations through Jan. 25:
- Sturtevants (Ketchum and Hailey)
- Board Bin (Ketchum)
- PKs Ski & Sports / PK Ski Rentals (Ketchum)
- Formula Sports (Ketchum)
- Ski Tek (Ketchum)
- Epic Elevation Sports in Twin Falls
It gets better, organizers point out. The participating shops (Ski Tek and Epic Elevation Sports excluded) will be offering 50 percent off demos and rentals on Jan. 26. And the following lodging options will also be offering a variety of ways to save 50 percent off one’s stay:
- Alpine Lodge
- BW Plus Kentwood Lodge
- Hotel Ketchum
- Knob Hill Inn
- Sun Valley Inn
- Tamarack Lodge
- Wood River Inn & Suites
Visit flysunvalleyalliance.com/ski-for-air-day for details on those offers since some require multiple-day bookings.
An average of 134,882 passengers arrive and depart from Friedman Memorial Airport annually. The total number of scheduled winter 2019-20 SUN flights is 996, up from 962 flights the previous winter. This is in large part thanks to Alaska and United airlines. From Seattle, Alaska Airlines increased its service to two daily nonstop flights to SUN during this past holiday season. From Chicago, United expanded its offerings, too. And from Denver, UA is offering daily nonstop flights through March 29.
Air service development is funded through both public and private investment. Public sector investment is funded by the 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax revenue placed on certain types of businesses, like hotels.
As Mayor of Ketchum, Neil Bradshaw is intimately familiar with the relationship between more air travel into the Valley and more funds into city coffers. He points out, though, the debate each year comes down to “Do you fill the seat, or do you buy the ticket?”
In other words, funds can go through one of two funnels: a marketing funnel, which encourages non-Valley folks to fly here, and—let’s call it—a subsidy funnel, which covers the loss an airline would incur when a seat is not filled. Bradshaw says there’s a roughly 50-50 split between those two approaches.
“For airlines it’s all about load factors. Airlines want a full load (of paying passengers),” Bradshaw explained. “So any time awareness is created, that’s a good thing.”