Airliner service to Provo may take wing

PROVO -- It's never bothered Tyler Ruby to travel from Provo to Salt Lake City in order to catch a flight home to San Diego.

On the flight back to Happy Valley, however, it has always seemed ironic to the Brigham Young University junior that his plane passes by Provo without stopping to let him off. But short of strapping on a parachute, Ruby never thought there was a way to avoid backtracking 50 miles.

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings says that may change soon.

"There will be scheduled (airline) service to Provo," Billings told a group of BYU students at the school Thursday.

While commercial aircraft service remains a few years away, Billings said four proposals have been drafted by unnamed airlines that would provide regional flights in and out of the Provo Municipal Airport.

Each proposal is focused on passenger jet service, which Billings thinks is adequate to service Provo's smaller market -- though he admitted that the airport's design could feasibly support large airliners.

"We're not really after the heavy jets," Billings said. "They're intending to be regional connections to other regional locations."

According to Billings, the first phase of the airport's expansion would allow for Boeing 717 jets, which seat 105 passengers, to run daily flights from Provo to several Western destinations, including Long Beach, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix and somewhere in the Northwest.

Salt Lake airport officials aren't worried about Provo airport competing for their passengers, said spokeswoman Barbara Gann. They also aren't interested in using Provo's runaway to divert aircraft or make emergency landings due to the cities' proximity.

"We've got three air carrier runways, Gann said. "It would be a stretch to think Provo would be a reliever airport."

However, construction is already under way in Provo for a $2.2 million airport control tower, which will oversee the 150,000 annual takeoffs and landings made by Utah Valley State College flight students, personal aircraft and BYU football team charter flights.

That number doesn't include Universal Helicopters Inc., which runs a helicopter flight school on airport grounds, or Silver State Helicopters Inc., which opened a new school Thursday near the airport.

With planes, jets and helicopters hovering in the air -- and more to possibly come -- neighboring residents aren't thrilled about the increased noise and pollution the added aircraft will bring.

Thanks to a new "right-hand pattern" that requires all aircraft to use a path that runs over Utah Lake, Billings said the problem should be resolved before passenger jet service goes into effect.

That idea pleases BYU faculty member Ilona Klein, who lives in south Provo where aircraft often "fly pretty low" near residential homes. In the past, Klein wrote several letters to the Federal Aviation Administration opposing any growth at the airport. After hearing Billings speak, however, Klein said she will embrace the impending changes.

"At this point, you just join the fight," she said. "I love the idea of flying out of the airport."

When asked by Billings if they would prefer to use the Provo airport instead of Salt Lake International, the majority of student hands shot up into the air. Ruby's hand was one of them.

"I would definitely choose Provo over Salt Lake," Ruby said. "This idea is totally appealing to me. It totally hits my neck of the woods."

Other students agree, including BYU Service Association president Dave Johnson. He pointed out that students die each year while driving home or to the airport during school holidays. Some of those deaths could be prevented, Johnson speculated, if Provo offered a closer airport alternative.

"This is a really important issue," he said. "It's not simply a convenience. This is a public safety issue that will save lives."

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