QUINCY — The Quincy City Council learned Tuesday jet airliners Air Wisconsin and Contour Airlines are among the bidders interested in replacing Southern Airways Express as Quincy’s airline under the federally funded Essential Air Service program.
Given the Aeronautics Committee’s dissatisfaction with Southern Airways Express’ reliability and flight numbers, the U.S. Department of Transportation has opened bids for a replacement vendor per an Aug. 21 request from Mayor Mike Troup.
Proposals from airlines were initially due by Nov. 14, but Troup told aldermen Air Wisconsin, which wants to fly 50-seat jet aircraft out of Quincy, requested and received an extension to Dec. 3.
Despite the attraction of the passenger capacity, Troup said federal regulations would require firefighters to be present for each Air Wisconsin takeoff and landing “and we don’t have the budget for the airport to handle that at this time.”
If Quincy Regional Airport had more than 10,000 passengers annually, it would be eligible for up to $1 million in Federal Aviation Administration grant money that Troup said could help cover operations.
Given the airport is on track to serve 4,000 passengers this year, those funds will be reduced to $150,000. However, moving forward the FAA has recently adopted a sliding-scale policy that will be more rewarding of incremental progress in future years.
Should Air Wisconsin prove infeasible, Contour Airlines flies 20-passenger jets exempt from more extensive fire safety requirements.
“They’ve expressed interest really from the very beginning,” Troup said. “They contacted us quite early (after the request for proposals) and they’ve had some pretty significant success in new airports they’ve signed up recently — they’ve increased the ridership significantly in the first three to six months.”
Troup said safety and reliability will be the first and foremost selection criteria. The city will also prioritize non-stop flights to O’Hare International Airport for business travelers and a Southwest Airlines hub for vacationer.
“Some airlines are complaining to me that St. Louis Lambert Airport is very expensive and has some issues with airlines,” Troup said. “I’ve said (it’s) fine if you don’t want to go there, pick another airport that has a Southwest hub and I think that will satisfy the other portion of our travelers.”
Troup believes jet service will make more residents comfortable with flying out of Quincy.
“Some of the business community’s employers currently do not allow them to travel on a commercial aircraft that’s not a jet,” he added.
Several conventional airlines have also expressed interest, including Cape Air, Boutique Air and SkyWest. Troup said he expects to see at least four proposals in December, and a new airline in four to six months. Cape Air previously served Quincy, and Southern took over for it in December 2022 after Cape Air left the market citing a pilot shortage. SkyWest also provided passenger air service at the airport for two years.
“I would encourage the public to give us their opinions, because we are going to need them (soon) here,” said Alderman Eric Entrup, R-1.
In other business, the council heard the fire and police pension funds saw returns of 10.12% and 9.32% respectively compared to 0.69% and 0.74% last fiscal year.
Both funds average 52.56% funding of accrued benefits, leaving $93.99 million in unfunded benefits. This is slightly below average compared to other Illinois cities, which average 55-56% funding.
Aldermen unanimously voted to contribute $9.9 million to the fund this fiscal year, an increase of $556,700 over last year. The city’s contributions are calculated to achieve a 100% funding rate by 2040, compared to the state’s mandate of 90% by 2040.
Alderman Jeff Bergman, R-2, expressed that the city can’t continue to increase its pension funding rate while cutting property taxes. He said departments are already suffering to maintain the current rate.
Troup said the city is trying to regain ground after previous administrations funded pensions at the bare minimum, depriving the fund of decades of interest.
Comptroller Sheri Ray said the issue extends to the state level, explaining Illinois didn’t account for medical advances prolonging retiree age and other confounding factors when contribution rates were calculated in decades past.
However, if the city stops funding pensions aggressively, it will become subject to “reverse compounding interest” as retirees get annual cost of living increases in their benefits.
The city’s actuary vendor, Lauterbach and Amen, said the state of Illinois is in talks to extend the 90% funded deadline to 2050.