Air tour industry seeks to restore confidence

Monday, Aug. 13, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

The Grand Canyon air tour industry will need to emphasize its safety record to restore confidence with the public and keep customers coming, industry experts say.

But even the message that Friday's deadly crash of a Papillon Grand Canyon helicopter was the first fatal accident in nearly a half-million air tour operations could have major impact on the industry's ability to sell tickets.

It's difficult to gauge the long-term impact the accident will have on the industry.

Jim Petty, president of Air Vegas Airlines, one of the top air tour operators in the Las Vegas area, said his company is still feeling the repercussions of an accident involving one of his competitors that occurred six years ago.

On Feb. 13, 1995, eight Taiwanese tourists perished when a Las Vegas Airlines twin-engine Piper Navajo tour plane crashed about two miles from the airport at Tusayan, Ariz., near the Grand Canyon.

Las Vegas Airlines has since gone out of business, but Petty said bookings with his company originating from Taiwan slowed to a trickle and still haven't returned to levels experienced before the accident.

"That accident absolutely affected us," Petty said. "I don't really think it's so much (people remembering the accident), but in the way the industry is marketed there today."

Travel professionals in Taiwan are routing more of their clients to bus tours, Petty said. The accident was probably a catalyst that resulted in contracts with bus companies, he said, making it more profitable for travel agents to recommend buses over air tours -- even though there have been at least three fatal bus accidents involving Grand Canyon travelers this year alone.

But Petty also noted that it's hard to tell if a similar downturn would occur in the wake of the Papillon crash that killed six people. Air Vegas operates a package with a helicopter flight component, and that tour will have the highest number of daily bookings ever -- about 40 -- when it goes out today.

"I thought that that package would have been affected," Petty said. "But there have been zero questions about it at our office. Our guide that coordinates the tour at the west rim (of the Grand Canyon) got one inquiry, but there have been no cancellations.

"Either the people who are going on these tours are not watching television or reading the newspapers about this and don't know about it, or they are satisfied that the operation is safe."

Robert Graff, vice president of marketing for Papillon, said his company's top priority since the crash has been to cooperate with regulatory authorities and to accommodate the needs of the families who lost loved ones in the accident.

All suppliers, vendors and partners with which the company has been working have been "extremely supportive" in addressing matters the company has faced since the crash, he said.

Papillon has flown 4 million passengers since it began operations in 1965. In addition to sightseeing tours, the company has service contracts with U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service agencies. It is the world's largest helicopter touring company, working exclusively at the Grand Canyon, with bases in Arizona and in Las Vegas.

The company has received a five-diamond national travel award from the American Academy of Hospitality for its air tours.

Other Las Vegas companies that operate helicopter tours to the Grand Canyon either would not comment on the status of their bookings or could not be reached for comment today.

Petty said the Grand Canyon air tour industry in Las Vegas is projected to fly about 400,000 people this year on flights over the national park. About 20 percent to 25 percent of those are aboard helicopters, while the rest fly in fixed-wing aircraft.

The percentage of passengers flying in helicopters from Arizona airports is much higher. About 80 percent of the about 300,000 passengers from those airports fly in helicopters.

But the key to keeping ticket sales up, officials said, is to emphasize the safety record.

"The air tour industry is already held to the highest possible government safety standards," said Steve Bassett, president of the United States Air Tour Association, in Columbia, Md.

"And the Grand Canyon, because of its high visibility, is even more scrutinized than other aviation activities in the United States," he said. "Because it is so important that the air touring public have confidence in the industry, it operates at the highest level of aviation safety."

Bassett said it's difficult to convey the message of safety right after an accident.

"We can talk until we're blue in the face about the safety of aviation and how it's one of the safest modes of transportation," Bassett said. "That all appears transparent on the heels of a tragedy like this.

"But people are going to hear that these (air tour companies) are not the companies that are going to cut corners or take chances. Over a period of years, they have instilled a high level of safety consciousness."

Graff said Papillon also would emphasize the company's safety record.

"This is the first fatality we have had in the sightseeing business, and we've been flying the canyon since 1967," Graff said of his company, which is part of the Tour Operator Safety Program, a national coalition of air tour operators.