Casper mayor, city council examining airport funding

CASPER, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Casper City Council is looking at ways they can possibly make a change at Casper-Natrona County International Airport in regards to minimum revenue guarantees... Or MRG’s... Specifically.

Mayor Bruce Knell shared his frustration about the situation. “SkyWest is a 1.2-billion-dollar company. They absolutely should not receive any of tax payers money... To help them with their business. That’s no different than any other business coming to the city and saying, ‘I’d sure like some money to help me continue with my business.’ I think it’s inappropriate. I think it’s wrong.”

MRG’s are business deals that airlines like United and Delta... Both of whom lease planes from SkyWest... Can create with airports like the one in Casper.

City council has begun looking at ways to limit the MRG... If not do away with it altogether. And Knell believes another contributing factor to the lower-than-preferred amount of passengers flying in-and-out of Casper is an over-saturation of airports in Wyoming. “We need to do away with these MRG’s statewide. The state needs to quit funding them. We need to do away with the airport in Gillette, in Rock Springs, in Evanston, in Sheridan, in Cody, in Riverton. They all need to go away. We need to have one international airport in Casper, and one airport in Jackson.”

In essence, Knell believes that less airports in the state would then help the airports that would remain operational to have more traffic... which would in turn help the bottom line of those airports.

It should be noted that Natrona County and the state also help with airport and airline funding, not just the city.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on the story as events unfold.

Copyright 2023 KGWN. All rights reserved.