Bill aims to attract discount airlines

CHARLESTON -- When the only discount airline serving Charleston International Airport left in December, flight prices on traditional carriers almost immediately reflected the end of that healthy competition.

One local travel agent tracked tickets to New York as they soared from a little more than $200 round-trip without a required overnight stay to nearly $800. And Charleston-based software maker Blackbaud Inc. announced that it would hold its annual Conference for Nonprofits in the Washington, D.C., area this year -- not in Charleston -- in part because of the cheaper fares and availability of direct flights to the nation's capital.

The AirTran effect extends beyond Charleston, though. Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, more than four years later, still suffers from losing Independence Air when the company folded in 2006. Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Commission Executive Director Dave Edwards said annual boardings numbered about 920,000 during the Independence Air days but total only about 650,000 now.

State lawmakers recently made expanded air service an urgent priority, adding a new bill and provisions in the annual budget that would create funding for that purpose. Sen. Larry Grooms, a Bonneau Republican, even made a failed attempt to add language to the cigarette tax bill for airline incentives money.

The House in March passed a bill, now moving through the Senate, that would establish the S.C. Air Services Incentive and Development Fund under the state Aeronautics Commission. The fund would provide grants to economic development groups for attracting new carriers and flights and, in turn, better air fares.

The Aeronautics Commission could borrow up to $15 million from the Insurance Reserve Fund. The bill also spells out how to repay the Insurance Reserve Fund from aircraft property tax revenues.

Southwest Airlines recently added service to Panama City, Fla., for example, after a private developer agreed to subsidize the operation.