St. Augustine airport authority takes cautious approach to possible deal for air service

St. Augustine airport authority takes cautious approach to possible deal for air service (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — After a special meeting of the St. Augustine Airport Authority, it’s hard to tell if the local airport is closer to securing new commercial air service.

Executive Director Ed Wuellner presented the board members with a proposal from Avelo Airlines to connect the Northeast Florida Regional Airport with three East Coast destinations as soon as June.

He said the agreement that he was prepared bring to the airline was virtually identical to the ones he’s used over the last 15 years to bring in service from airlines like Skybus, Frontier, ViaAir and Elite.

However, board members balked during Monday’s meeting, complaining that they knew virtually nothing of the agreement and had various concerns.

They voted instead to have board member Dennis Clarke to do an intensive review of the agreement with attorney Chad Roberts.

Roberts identified what he considered two chief problems in the proposed agreement. One is that airport employees would be doing work like handling baggage, and he thought the board should at least examine the possibility of outsourcing that.

The other major concern was it would “contractually require you to satisfy the service levels that the carrier establishes.”

There were some other more secondary issues with the agreement, but Roberts said they could most likely be worked out. He also said there is reason to think a new agreement can be reached.

“There are two interested parties that want to get to a resolution and a yes,” he said. “There’s a carrier that wants to provide service here, and we are highly motivated for the carrier to provide service here.”

However, the biggest issue will be how patient Avelo will be with St. Augustine. The carrier already services Orlando and five other Florida airports. According to the presentation, it wanted to make an announcement in March and start service in June.

So it remains to be seen whether the airport board will move quickly enough to satisfy Avelo — assuming the members do decide to move forward with a final agreement.

The airline proposes to fly nine flights per week from St. Augustine to New Haven, Connecticut; Wilmington, Delaware; and Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the board voted to terminate the airport’s contract with Elite Airways. That carrier suspended service in June. There have been rumors that it would start flying again, but no official word has come about.

Should Elite decide to resume service, it would have to come to a new agreement with the airport.