Enzi's bill | The Ranger, Riverton and Lander, Wyoming Daily Newspaper

Give U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming a set of golden pilot's wings for recognizing the potentially catastrophic problem facing Wyoming's small airports and trying to do something about it.
Enzi has introduced a bill in Congress which would keep automatic federal funding cuts from kicking in at airports for failing to reach the 10,000-passenger mark last year.

Riverton Regional Airport, the only airport in Fremont County with airline service, is one such field. Just a couple of years ago, Riverton Regional Airport boarded more than 13,000 passengers. Then a new federal regulation changed the experience requirements for co-pilots on all airline flights with 10 passengers or more. It cut the Great Lakes Airlines pilot force by at least one third, and the small airline that counts on maximum efficiency to make ends meet suddenly could not staff its full flight schedule in compliance with federal regulations. Service was abandoned at some airports (Sheridan), other airports "fired" Great Lakes Airlines (Rock Springs), and the airports continuing to be served by the carrier saw a demoralizing erosion of service.
Last year, Riverton Regional Airport only boarded about half as many passengers as it had the year before, virtually all because of the pilot shortage created by the Federal Aviation Administration's ruling.
Enzi's bill is a sensible one. It permits the 2013 boarding figures for airports to be used as the qualification basis for the $1 million annual federal grant for small airports. This is important money for airports that often rely on it to make basic infrastructure improvements that benefit the air traveling public.

The bill also would permit the 2013 boarding figures to remain the qualifying standard for several years to come, buying time for the airports to work out new service solutions while, hoping against hope, that the FAA regulation which is causing this calamity might be re-examined and modified, or even repealed.

As Enzi and others familiar with the situation have pointed out, the rule change has nothing to do with Great Lakes Airlines, Wyoming, or, as a matter fact, the cockpit experience of co-pilots. It came about as a knee-jerk response to a plane crash in the state of New York some years ago. Both pilots in that crash were experienced at or beyond the level now required of small airlines everywhere.

Had a junior pilot with little seat time actually been to blame for the crash, then the justification for the new rule would be easier to swallow. As it is, however, Wyoming residents frustrated in the extreme by the service decline have more reason to dislike non-elected bureaucrats from federal agencies who hand out regulations with little thought to the real-life consequences.

It is unclear whether or when Enzi's bill might pass Congress. Legislators from big states with big airports don't care much about the problems of Riverton or Sheridan, or similar airports in other sparsely populated states out west. There simply aren't enough voters affected for them to worry about. But Enzi is an experienced and respected legislator, a committee chairman recognized universally as a pragmatic and sensible guy who doesn't sponsor legislation on a whim. With Republicans now in the majority in the Senate, this bill should be taken seriously.

If it could be passed, it would be a good stopgap while Wyoming figures out a longer-term solution. Riverton Regional Airport is hard at work on that, and having the million dollars in federal money still available will make it easier for us to attract a different airline for service here, or, possibly, to create a situation under which Great Lakes Airlines could continue to serve -- but more reliably.

All Fremont County ought to thank Sen. Mike Enzi for his recognition of and responsiveness to this problem. He has flown into too many Wyoming airports not to recognize the importance of air service to small cities where the nearest metro airport is six hours away. With effort now being made locally and nationally, we might stand a chance.