Airport director: Pilot shortage cause of Albany flight cuts

ALBANY — Delta Airlines’ decision last week to cut midday Tuesday and Wednesday flights at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport had nothing to do with local passenger count or customer service, Airport Director Yvette Aehle said Monday afternoon.

At a news conference called to clear up what she said was misinformation distributed by local media last week, Aehle said the cuts were the “unintended consequences” of new regulations that have led to a pilot shortage with the carrier.

“If you’ll recall, Congress passed new legislation that requires a 10-hour mandatory rest period between flights and that requires pilots to have 1,500 flight hours before they can pilot jets,” Aehle said. “The legislation was because of a crash in which the airline admitted the pilot did not have the proper amount of rest (between flights). Someone said at the time the legislation passed that this would come back to haunt smaller airports, and it has.”

Aehle said flight cuts will impact airports in Brunswick and Columbus, as well as the Albany-based airport.

“They’re shorting our flights, but we hope it’s a short short,” Aehle said. “Delta is hiring pilots aggressively — right now, they’re telling pilots ‘if you have 1,500 hours, you need to apply’ — but it’s hard to get hours in jets. We’re hoping they’ll be able to alleviate these cuts by late summer, but it could potentially continue on into 2016.”

Aehle said the cuts come at a time when passenger counts are on the rise at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

“Enplanements have been up every month since June of last year, and we’re up 8 percent this year over the same time period last year,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is something we’re going to have to live with. Delta won’t start cutting the flights until May 5, so we still have a couple of months before we lose those flights.

“If our Aviation Board wants to look for a bright in this, it’s that (the cuts) have nothing to do with anything we’re doing. It’s something we have no control over.”

Aehle said losing the flights will impact her Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which goes into effect July 1.

“I’m projecting $15,000 less in revenue because of the lost flights,” she said. “We’ll have to make some changes, make some cuts, but it’s nothing drastic.”

Aehle said the pilot shortage is having a greater impact on airports that rely on the 50-seat regional jets that service smaller airports.

“Of course, the smaller communities that get the commuter flights are the ones that feel the impact most,” she said. “(Delta) has cancelled a slew of flights in Atlanta and other places, but communities like ours feel it most.

“Unfortuntaley, this comes at a time when we’ve started allowing customers to use our two new (and still unfinished) parking lots, the ones closest to the terminal building. We’ll just have to live with it and hope that this is a temporary inconvenience.”