Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.
When the federal government offered to bail out the airline industry in the wake of the post-Sept. 11 aviation shutdown, few were thinking about helicopter tours.
Few, that is, but the helicopter companies that offer tours of places such as the Grand Canyon. Locally, six of them received $1.4 million of a congressionally approved $5 billion one-time direct payment from the federal Transportation Department, according to federal documents.
Aviation analyst Mike Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, said helicopter companies, along with smaller airlines as well as air ambulance companies, were all entitled to the loans alongside major airlines.
"The whole federal program was to make up for the botched response to Sept. 11th," Boyd said. "They were grounded too. Their business was shut down too. There are small-business loans specifically aimed at Sept. 11-related loses. Limousine companies have gotten low-interest loans because of Sept. 11."
Boyd says any company could apply for the money but they had to show what their loses were to get any funding.
People who criticize the program "act as if (helicopter companies) stole the money," Boyd said.
"If anyone has a problem with that program they need to call the federal government, not the helicopter companies," he said.
The local helicopter companies to benefit from the one-time bailout late last year are Air Grand Canyon Inc., which got $28,626; Harrah's Laughlin Inc., which received $359,549; Heli USA Airways, which got $717,133; Las Vegas Helicopters Inc., which got $39,330; Maverick Helicopters, which received $168,419; and Sundance Helicopters, which got $158,224. The total: $1,471,272.
Through Tuesday, 410 aviation companies have received $4.6 billion from the direct payments program designed to help all carriers that lost revenue between Sept. 11, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2001. Applications are still being reviewed for the money remaining in the fund.
Grand Canyon tour operators had launched a high-stakes lobbying campaign to convince Congress that smaller operators should get part of the $5 billion, said U.S. Air Tour Association president Steve Bassett, who is also vice president of Las Vegas-based Air Vegas Airlines. He credits the Nevada lawmakers for pleading their case.
Grand Canyon operators lost an estimated $20.5 million as a result of Sept. 11, Bassett said.
Air Vegas lost about $1 million, he said. The company laid off about 50 percent of its staff -- about 70 people including pilots -- after the attacks. "It was devastating," Bassett said.
But the company eventually got about $553,000 from the $5 billion fund, which helped cover payroll and keep the company afloat.
"A half million obviously helps," Bassett said.
At the time Congress approved the money, critics, including some lawmakers, questioned whether Congress should give airlines so much money. They pointed to services like Amtrak -- as well as countless important non-transportation companies -- that were not being compensated for Sept. 11-related losses.
Nevada lawmakers said most in Congress intended to help even the smallest of air carriers to keep America flying.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was among the senators who fought to craft the bill so that small operators of all kinds, not just major airlines, would get some of the direct grant money.
"These small carriers in Nevada needed help to make sure they could continue operating after this national tragedy," Reid spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer noted the small operators were "shut down just like the major carriers, in some cases longer."
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who sits on the House Transportation Committee, today said she was pleased that some of the $5 billion in direct aid had trickled down to Nevada businesses.
The government set up two programs: one offered $5 billion in direct payments that was overseen by the Transportation Department, the other was a $10 billion federally guaranteed bank loan program overseen by the Treasury Department's Air Transportation Stabilization Board.
"No loan guarantees have been requested by or given to helicopter companies," Betsy Holahan, Treasury spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said today.
Berkley has been critical of the way the stabilization board has distributed the $10 billion loan fund. She is upset that bankrupt National Airlines did not receive loan money, although it did get a $21.5 million handout from the $5 billion aid fund. It went out of business in November, three months after being turned down for the loan guarantee.
Since the loan guarantee program began in November 2001, only two companies have been approved for the federally guaranteed loans -- America West Airlines for $429 million in January and America Trans Air for $148.5 million in federal guarantees on a $168 million bank loan.
United Air Lines got $774,221,331 from the one-time bailout fund but last week was turned down for a federal guarantee of $1.8 billion on a proposed $2 billion bank loan. The company went into bankruptcy Monday.
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