DFW tops airport survey

CLOVIS — A survey promoted by the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce indicates local flyers would most prefer the future Essential Air Services carrier at Clovis Municipal Airport provide service to Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Clovis city commission is tasked to make a recommendation at its 4 p.m. Tuesday meeting between five proposals for EAS, a program that federally subsidizes flights for small communities and is paid for through taxes collected on air travel.

Submissions are from Advanced Air, Boutique Airlines, Contour Airlines, Key Lime Air Corp. (operating as Denver Air Connection) and Sky West Airlines.

Boutique is serving the current EAS contract, which expires at the beginning of 2020.

The final decision lies with the Federal Aviation Administration, but local input is normally a heavy factor in the decision process.

The survey on air service asked one question: “As a Clovis/Portales citizen, please pick the route you would fly the most from Clovis if the airline was reliable.” The choices were Albuquerque, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver and Houston.

A total of 2,190 people took the survey, which allowed respondents to pick any, all or none of the four options. Five respondents left blank votes. Vote totals were:

• Dallas/Fort Worth, 1,370

• Denver, 781

• Albuquerque, 743

• Houston, 371

Survey respondents were 69.22% female, 30.78% male, with the largest age groups surveyed 25-34 (29.33%) and 35-44 (22.51%).