LV air tour industry may be looking at winter shutdowns

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Grand Canyon air tour operators say they'd have to shut down in the winter months and hope they can survive the rest of the year if their lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. Tuesday fails.

The Mountain States Legal Foundation, a nonprofit, public interest legal center that focuses on property issues, limited government and free enterprise cases, filed suit in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The MSLF filed the suit on behalf of the United States Air Tour Association and seven airlines and helicopter tour companies, including five that operate from the Las Vegas area.

Named in the suit were administrators of the Federal Aviation Administration, Grand Canyon National Park and the U.S. Department of Interior.

Initially, industry officials and the foundation said they planned to file last week in District Court. Bill Thode, who is assisting in the case for the MSLF, said because the case involves FAA rules, the complaint was directed to the Court of Appeals and the change resulted in the delayed filing.

Thode said the foundation also plans to file a motion next week for a stay to suspend implementation of the new rules that restrict air tours over Grand Canyon National Park until the new filing is adjudicated. The new rules took effect last week.

Meanwhile, tour operators are worried that another new set of rules related specifically to soundscape preservation and noise management will be used to further restrict flights over U.S. national parks, including Grand Canyon.

Tour operators contend natural quiet already has been restored at the Grand Canyon under earlier guidelines.

Managers for Air Vegas Airlines and Grand Canyon Airlines said they've crunched the numbers and determined that if they are forced to cut back flights, as required by new FAA regulations, it would be more economical for them to shut down between November and March.

Steve Bassett, president of the U.S. Air Tour Association, said that's just what environmentalists want to hear.

"They would like nothing better than for us to have to shut down for any reason," Bassett said at a news conference late last month announcing plans to file the suit.

Jim Petty, president of Air Vegas, the second-largest company in Nevada operating Grand Canyon air tours, said the new regulations would force him to cut 25 percent of the more than 8,000 flights he operated in 1996.

The FAA and the National Park Service, which drew the regulations, placed a cap on operations based on a benchmark test year that ran from May 1997 to April 1998. The tour companies complain that there were 45 days of inclement weather during that time frame and it also was during Asian economic woes when the number of overseas tourists to Las Vegas -- and scenic flights -- was down.

The new regulations also establish more "no-fly zones" that restrict flights over 75 percent of the canyon instead of 45 percent of the park. Flights would be banned over the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, an area considered sacred by the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes. The plan also would eliminate flights over portions of the Hulapai and Havasupai Indian reservations on the west end of the Grand Canyon.

Petty said when he complained to the government about potential lost revenues, he was told he should raise faes to make up for it.

"The bottom line is that I was lied to," said Alan Stephen, vice president of operations for Grand Canyon Airline and president of Twin Otter International, which leases planes to air tour companies.

Stephen said tour operators were told there would be incentives to acquire quiet aircraft as a means of compromising on the number of flights allowable over the canyon. But when the regulation was released, there was no such incentive.

North Las Vegas-based Scenic Airlines, the largest air tour operator flying from Nevada, began acquiring other airlines redesigning its fleet in 1996 to fly larger but quieter planes. The investment backfired because the planes are more expensive and Scenic has been ordered to cut flights like other companies.

"It was in good faith that we made these investments into other air carriers and more expensive aircraft to take advantage of these incentives for quiet aircraft technology that we were told would become part of the new rulemaking," said Norman Freeman, president of Scenic Airlines. "This failure to address quiet aircraft technology create an environment that is impossible to generate a return to our investment."

The new restriction on flights over the western part of the canyon will result in Scenic eliminating one of its tour programs. Freeman said that program alone produces about $1.4 million in revenue sales annually.

Freeman also said the National Park Service and the FAA have used faulty science in noise studies that were conducted as part of the regulations. Now, the National Park Service is soliciting comments on a proposed new order on noise management.

The Park Service has asked for written comments on the proposed order by Monday. The purpose of the order, it says, is to offer "the natural soundscape resource in a condition unimpaired by inappropriate noise sources."

Included in the request for comments is a section on air tour management planning.

"Superintendents will work cooperatively with the FAA, air tour operators and other stakeholders in the development of air tour management plans where air tours exist or are proposed over national park units," the document says.

Tour operators are worried that could mean more disputes with the Park Service and environmentalists, who operators say are trying to ban them from park air space.

A representative of the Grand Canyon Trust, an environmental group based in Flagstaff, Ariz., says that isn't true. Tom Robinson, director of conservation policy for the group, also said he is surprised the tour operators have pinned hopes on a firm dedicated to property rights.

"I think it's humorous that they've hired the foundation," Robinson said. "It's the air tour industry that has taken away the public's right to natural quiet. I don't think they have a legal leg to stand on. It's all political posturing."

Richard N. Velotta is a business writer for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4061 or by e-mail at velotta@lasvegassun.com