Casper City Council looking to alleviate MRG’s at airport

Casper, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Casper City Council is looking at ways they can possibly help make a change at Casper-Natrona County International Airport. What’s the change they have in mind and how could it help?

In business speak, an M.R.G. is a minimum revenue guarantee. The types of deals that airlines like United and Delta could strike with airports like the one in Casper. However, it’s not necessarily a popular concept. Which is why city council is now looking into it, as city manager carter Napier explains.

“The conversation has been hovering around the idea of ways in which the Casper City Council can participate in helping the Fly Casper Alliance, and the larger community... Use the airport in such a way... That we would be able to rise above the need for a minimum revenue guarantee, that some of the airlines are requiring these days.”

So what exactly is the Fly Casper Alliance, and what is their goal? “The Fly Casper Alliance is essentially a non-profit organization that, in a lot of ways, is sort of an extension of the Advance Casper entity,” Napier says. “But nonetheless, a separate non-profit with the aim and purpose of encouraging flights in and out of Casper.”

As Napier details, the thought process is increasing passengers, to increase flights, to lower the need of an M.R.G. by the carriers. “In a lot of ways too, they have in the back of their minds, the goal of having enough enplanements in the community that we don’t have to participate in an M.R.G. program.”

Time will tell if the alliance and council can accomplish their goal, as the county and the state are also players in this game of airport economics.

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