JH AIR asks county/town for $45,000 to underwrite winter flights

Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resources (JH AIR) is asking for $45,000 in FY27 community development funding — $30,000 from Teton County and $15,000 from the Town of Jackson — to help “contract and manage” winter commercial air service into Jackson Hole Airport. The request is laid out in a county Community Development staff report: Community Development Staff Report — Jackson Hole Air Improvement Resources Funding Request.

JH AIR reports an annual budget of $1.4 million and says the public request represents about 10% of the program funding tied to this application. In its FY26 look-back, the group says winter 2025–26 service is expected to carry 180,000–190,000 passengers across 266,000 seats (about a 70% load factor), and it attributes $315 million in visitor expenditures and roughly $14 million in sales tax to those visitors.

Where I’d like to see tighter “show-your-work” accounting is on what the public dollars specifically buy. The performance measures listed — exit interviews, net promoter score, “fare shops,” and sales tax — are mostly high-level indicators that can move for lots of reasons besides JH AIR’s contracting decisions. If commissioners are going to keep subsidizing air service, they should ask for a clearer FY27 scope (which routes/seat commitments are being bought down) and a couple of hard targets residents can track (seat capacity added, cost per incremental seat, and how much local fare competitiveness improved).