By Lara Kirkner
Mammoth Times Staff Writer

Commercial air service may still be a few years out for the Town of Mammoth Lakes and the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, but a charter service that might possibly start this November could help to fill the void for now.

Vision Airlines, an on-demand air carrier that has been operating since 1994, is in the due diligence phase of providing services to Mammoth. The company already provides charter air service to places like the Grand Canyon. At this time, according to the Manager of Business Development for Vision Airlines, Warren J. Kaplan, “Vision Airlines is evaluating several cities as prospective bases of business to fly to Mammoth including North Las Vegas, Carlsbad and other airports in the Southern California basin.”

The company has been in contact with both the Town and MMSA, and the three entities do believe they could work together. Town Manager Rob Clark and MMSA VP Pam Murphy were both enthusiastic about the charter service possibility.

“It would be an absolutely excellent complement to our commercial service,” Murphy said.
The airport’s initial commercial air service is planned to fly in and out of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), so other flights through the charter service to places like Carlsbad would still be highly desirable.
The charter service plane, a Dornier 328 Turboprop, holds up to 30 passengers. The first commercial flight in history to ever use the Dornier 328 prop was from Zurich to St. Moritz. According to Kaplan, due to the early phase the company is still in regarding service to Mammoth, pricing and routing schedules have yet to be developed.
Clark stated that the beginning of commercial air service to Mammoth is still hard to predict at this time as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is still working out some kinks and the Environmental Impact Statement is still being processed.

“We hope to get the EIS out to the public this fall,” Clark said. “The timing of that will determine the possibility of commercial flights in 2008.”

For more information about Vision Airlines you can visit www.flydornier.com or www.visionholidays.com.

http://www.mammothtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=826&Itemid=27