Esterly: Why the RGV should have just one international airport

HARLINGEN, Texas – Consolidating the Rio Grande Valley’s three international airports to one central location would save time for passengers in the long run, said Marv Esterly, aviation director of Valley International Airport.

“Once you consolidate air service to one airport, you stop flying multiple routes to same destinations, hitting the same banks of traffic,” he added. “You’re able to up-gauge the size of the aircraft and reduce the number of flights.”

Esterly said additional non-stop flight services to other destinations in the United States would also be a plus, thus improving air service to the public and the citizens of the entire Rio Grande Valley area.

Having three airports made sense when there was no interstate connectivity, Esterly said, in an exclusive podcast with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service. As the Valley has grown and more connections have been made, Esterly believes having one airport would be better for the RGV.

Here is the podcast:

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Using El Paso County as an example, Esterly said for a population of around 850,000, the air service far out planes the entire RGV.

“Our demographics are pretty much the same and El Paso doesn’t have a leisure destination by any means. So, you look at that and you start to wonder why? And you’ll see non-stop to Chicago and other non-stop to Denver and other areas that they have that we don’t have. Yet we have a population of 1.3 million people in the Rio Grande Valley,” Esterly said.

Having one airport brings more flights, especially non-stop flights to the area. In addition, it helps that there is no competition with other local airports for same flights, same airlines and destinations.

Esterly said it’s not about adding new destinations but about keeping destinations and air service in the RGV. If various air services are competing for the same market, it won’t sustain its profitability, causing the air service to leave the area. Once that happens, it may take up to 10 years, according to Esterly, to come back to the region.

In addition, air service in the current situation has to be subsidized because the passengers are being spread between the three airports. When an air service is subsidized, Esterly suspects it’s taxpayer money that is being used when the air service is not making money on its own.

Esterly said subsidizing is not bad, but it has to make sense that the chances of the air service to be successful over time will be good.

“If we want the best air service in the Rio Grande Valley, it all points to a consolidated effort, one way or the other,” he said.

Esterly touched upon the VIA’s recent projects, which include a master plan of the airport. He said the longest runway has now been completed, the Cat 2 ILS approaches are in and in operation; the new air traffic control tower is fully funded, and the design has been completed. In addition, a vista study was also conducted. That is a visual sighting study for the tower.

The recent rain issues have slowed construction down about a couple of weeks, he added.

“Demolition of the old air traffic control tower will be conducted any day now,” he said.

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