Whirled uses ex-councilors to spin Great Plains

Expecting to Fly

You don't have to be a frequent flyer to know firsthand what the rise of major airlines' hub systems of operation means in terms of inconvenience and frustration to residents of a non-hub city like Tulsa.

The short hop to Dallas, St. Louis or Denver -- oftentimes the opposite direction to which you're headed -- to fly to somewhere like New York, Los Angeles or even Little Rock makes such trips longer and less comfortable and increases the chances for flight delays, connections cancellations and baggage-handling snafus.

Lack of direct flight service to major cities is more than an inconvenience for local residents, it is a roadblock to economic development. If you're annoyed by flights to or from Tulsa that take seven hours when they ought to take three, think how someone contemplating starting or moving a business here might react.

Now, at long last, a new regional carrier, Great Plains Airlines, promises to offer direct, nonstop flights to the coasts and ultimately to more than 20 non-hub cities in the United States and Mexico.

The Tulsa City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on final approval of a financing package that contains, in addition to private investments and a $30 million loan from the Bank of Oklahoma, economic- development incentives previously approved by the Council and the Oklahoma Legislature.

The vote is the final crucial action required before Great Plains can begin the certification process and acquisition of its stable of new 50-passenger jet aircraft.

Great Plains plans to begin offering multiple daily flights connecting Tulsa and Oklahoma City with New York City and Washington, D.C., by May.

In addition to the obvious benefits, Great Plains Airlines will, over the next decade, create 2,000 new jobs and generate $23 million in revenue to the Tulsa Airport Authority. It represents a tremendous private-public partnership to solve a problem, offer a needed service and boost economic development opportunities.

The City Council already has demonstrated its support for the new airline. Its favorable vote Tuesday will help greatly improve air travel into and out of Tulsa.

The rosy picture was painted on the news pages, too, like this excerpt from a March 4, 2000, article in the business section:

Jack Knight, co-founder and senior vice president of Great Plains, which hopes to begin jet service between Tulsa and New York and Los Angeles in the second quarter, said the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa have been "enormously supportive" of the venture. "The state has extended $18 million in tax credits and training programs through Tulsa Technology Center and the vocational education system, and the city has provided vacant office and hangar space," Knight said. "Thevalue of aid packages provided by the state and local governments is between $45 million and $50 million.

"But it's the private sector that we have to energize -- and we are not asking for charitable donations. I think they will make enormous amounts of money from this investment. It's a tremendous opportunity."

Research by SH&E Associates, an air service consulting firm in Washington, D.C., supports Knight's contention that there is a sizable untapped market in Tulsa for direct jet service. The airline also would operate from Oklahoma City.

I'm sorry that the other seven councilors didn't have the strength of character to say no to the Tulsa Whirled, KRMG, Schnake Turnbo, and the Tulsa Metro Chamber bureaucracy, but that doesn't absolve the Tulsa Whirled from pushing this plan at a time when they owned a majority of the preferred stock without disclosing that fact publicly.