What if they built a new runway and nobody landed?
This Utah border town, forever envious of the gambling-fed fortunes of its Nevada neighbor, is finding out what it's like when a golden sky turns dark and empty.The promise of riches from above has, at least temporarily, eluded this hard-working community of 1,800.
Wendover's financial future, perhaps the very existence of the city itself, rests precariously on the chance that a fledgling charter air service and two Nevada casinos can agree to do business together. If they can't, the city may lose its best hope for economic prosperity.
In April, Great American Airways lost its federal certification and could no longer conduct gambling charter flights for the jointly owned StateLine Hotel Casino and Silver Smith Casino Resort in West Wendover, Nev. The charters had proved successful for both the airline and the casinos since they began in March 1993.
Since Great American's demise, the Wendover Airport has been nearly deserted. The casinos entered a brief contract with another charter service in July, but that lasted only a few weeks before the dissatisfied casinos pulled the plug.
The airport, teeming with more than 75 workers and 68,000 paying passengers in 1996, now serves only the occasional corporate jet or private plane. Its new east-west runway is only half-finished, abandoned by unpaid construction crews in August. The city of Wendover, which owns the former military air field, owes Gibbons & Reed Co. of Salt Lake City nearly $3 million for the work it's already performed.
"It's a very real possibility, if things don't turn out along the lines we're planning, that the city of Wendover, Utah, could end up bankrupt because of this," said Barry Banks, an aviation planner with the Wasatch Front Regional Council, one of many Utah officials working to help restore charter flights to the airport.
"Wendover, Utah, doesn't really have any revenue stream other than that generated by the airport. We here at the regional council and UDOT (the Utah Department of Transportation) have recognized that for some time.
"We have been looking very aggressively for another carrier. The problem is, most of the carriers that are out there, with the growth in the market, have a lot of existing business and it's very hard to bring them into this market, even though the potential for growth is very good."
Just last spring, there was a steady stream of cash flowing into the airport from user fees, fuel taxes and a $3-a-head passenger charge - all as a result of the seemingly stable charter flights. The arrangement finally seemed to be closing the economic gap between prosperous West Wendover and its reluctantly parasitic cousin to the east.
The Utah side had the airport. The Nevada side had casinos craving the fat wallets of out-of-staters eager to fly in for a vacation in slot land. It seemed a perfect fit. And it still is, state transportation officials say.
On the strength of those charter flights alone, Wendover Airport vaulted from among Utah's aviation also-rans to become the state's third-busiest airport. In 1994 it was recognized as a "primary commercial-service airport," the highest national classification, making it eligible for federal money.
Suddenly, the financially strapped city government had a seemingly permanent source of new income.
"The airport was the largest source of revenue for the city, and then when it stopped it was devastating to us," said Art Martines, Wendover's city manager.
Martines now works 80- and 90-hour weeks to make up for forced cutbacks in other workers' schedules. But those city employees are lucky to have jobs. The collapse of charter service wiped out about 70 full- and part-time jobs the community desperately needed.
The city still gets revenue from airport hangar and building leases, and from landing fees and fuel sales to private airplanes. But monthly income from the airport has dropped from about $45,000 to $10,000. The only other substantial revenue comes from the city's water system, which sorely needs an upgrade, and from the few building permits the planning office issues.
Martines has placed 14 city employees on scaled-back, 32-hour work weeks. He spends much of his time applying for federal grants to keep the city afloat. And when the state Legislature convenes in January, Martines plans to be there, begging state lawmakers for any kind of assistance they can provide.
The most pressing issue is the debt to Gibbons & Reed. The contractor has been patient. It wants to complete the nearly $8 million project, which would give the airport a 10,000-foot long, 150-foot wide runway, designed to bring even more flights - including commercial jets that can't land at Salt Lake International Airport during inclement weather - to Wendover.
But the company has its own bills to pay and can't wait forever. Eventually, it could file a lawsuit against the city, which has promised to pay up by Jan. 15. The money is available in the form of federal grants and loans, but can't be accessed until the city can show it has renewed charter-flight service.
"They've asked us not to sue them," Bruce McGowan, Gibbons & Reed general manager, said of city officials. "We will continue to exist (without payment). We have no desire to be in the airport-operating business.
"This is very rare. This is the first time something like this has happened to us, in my recollection. . . . The underlying theme here is that there is a legitimate source of revenue, from landing fees. The only question is securing those landing fees with an airline agreement, so it's not as if there is no collateral to back up this project."
However, if the airport can't re-establish charter service in 1998, it would almost certainly lose its national status and, as a result, the federal funds it is counting on to finish the new runway. That would put the city in a difficult position.
Martines knows, no matter what happens, there are enough legal safeguards to keep the municipal government from actually filing bankruptcy. But it is a real possibility, he said, that the Wendover government could dissolve and the community would become an unincorporated part of Tooele County, and the responsibility of Tooele County's commissioners.
But that outcome is as extreme and unlikely as the Nevada state border being moved a mile or so to include Wendover, Utah. That unrealistic notion has been tossed about here for years.
A more tangible solution could be just weeks away. Win Air, a new charter company with Salt Lake ties, is negotiating with officials from the two casinos to secure a flight agreement. The casinos need bodies to fill their newly expanded hotels, especially on weekdays, and continuation of the charter service is viewed as a practical necessity to the Wendover gaming industry's future.
"The meeting that we had indicated to us that they are getting close to an agreement. The pricing is getting close to where the StateLine wants it," Melville said as he awaited the day's only scheduled flight, a corporate jet carrying executives from the Smith's Food & Drug grocery chain.
"Everybody will breathe a sigh of relief when (a charter agreement) is signed. At some point, the StateLine will contract with somebody" - when it meet its price."
Among the partners in Win Air are former Morris Air Service employees and Leon Christensen, president of Million Air, the fixed-base operator at Salt Lake International's charter terminal. Christensen said Wednesday he hopes an announcement of the agreement can be made within a few weeks.
In the meantime, the skies of Wendover will remain as conspicuously vacant as the city's treasury.