Wednesday, April 6, 2011
COMMISSION COWS BEFORE ONSLAUGHT, HAS THREE WEEKS TO DECIDE ON FUNDING FOR REGIONAL AIRLINE
By Juan Montoya The people of Brownsville and northern Mexico will know in three weeks whether they will have a long-sought regional airline linking northern Mexico with Brownsville as the hub, or whether election-year politics and vicious misinformation will kill the deal. During the Tuesday meeting at city hall, commissioners opted to give the city staff and the administration three weeks top do "due diligence" on Fly Frontera's application for city subsidies to begin operations out of the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport. The 21-day period was suggested by city contract attorney Mark Sossi to satisfy any questions the public and the city commissioners may have about the proposal. Charter Air Transport (CAT) is a U. S. Direct Air Carrier (certificate number GNOA005I) authorized by the FAA to operate under 14 CFR Part 135 approached the city to establish air service between Brownsville, Tampico and Monterrey and asked for the usual guarantees to guarantee a percentage of seats are filled to boost the service. The proposal got a unanimous response from the Airport Advisory Board and the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and granted the outfit $250,000 as "seed money" contingent on the city commission chipping in another $250,00. CAT presently operates five (5) Embraer EMB-120 “Brasilia” 30-passenger regional airliners in addition to other turbine-powered aircraft and has a TSA-approved full aircraft security program permitting operations into and out of “sterile” airport terminals. CAT has significant experience in operating scheduled public charter programs, both in the continental US and internationally. Jim Gallagher, president of Public Charters was excited and in his proposal to the city and to the BEDC said Fly Frontera could start offering competitive airline service primarily between Tampico, Tamaulipas, and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Brownsville by June 1 out of Brownsville. However, Bob Hendrick, president of Brownsville-based Pan American Airways Inc., which has been in operation at the airport for the last two years, objected to the granting of the incentives to Fly Frontera and complained that he hadn't been told the money would be available for passenger service and had been freed after they ran out for the American Eagle Airlines carrier. He went public and demanded that the commission not grant the Fly Frontera application and that the process be turned into a bidding war so that he and others could participate. From get-go it became apparent that a core of the commission was not ready to go along with the proposal after complaints that the process had been "rushed," even though negotiations between Air Frontera and the city had been ongoing since last August. T hen, an ad hoc group launched a campaign to derail the Fly Frontera proposal using various justifications, some focused on the personal lives of the representatives of the airline and a visceral objection to the economic development approach of the city and the GBIC and BEDC. T hey have threatened commissioners with political defeat if they should approve the Fly Frontera proposal. In three weeks, unless Fly Frontera decides to go elsewhere, city residents and northern Mexico travelers will know who decides things in Brownsville, the established boards and commission, or a disaffected group with its own agenda.
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rita
17 comments:
A chismoso told me Bob Hendrick, president of Brownsville-based Pan American Airways Inc. is going to invite chingo de Airlines to come and ask for incentives.
What is good for the geese is great for the gander.
A chismoso told me Bob Hendrick, president of Brownsville-based Pan American Airways Inc. is going to invite chingo de Airlines to come and ask for incentives.
Maybe something good will come out of this one.
Juan, you're pissing out of the pot, again.
Ese vato no es buena gente.
Political defeat? Isn't that a common tactic in Brownsville PACs?
Mr Montoya, how much are they paying you to carry Fly Frontera water for them. I cant belief you, a respected journalist, are selling out to this scumbags. You are losing all this credibility you got with the elections. We want to know how much they are paying you to do this.
If it's coming from a Chismoso, then I don't think that it's true.
Johnny Jinx. In Ghetto parlance it's what you call getting served!
This is ridiculous, very typical of the city officials in Brownsville, always operating in the dark. I think the best scenario would be to offer both groups (Pan Am and Fly Frontera) incentives but money is always a big issue. Nobody would benefit more than the paying customer when competition exists, but apparently the word competition is not in the city commission's or airport advisory commission's vocabulary. If money is an issue, have an open and transparent bidding process to select the group that is less likely to bail out on Brownsville. Has anyone checked these groups out IN DETAIL so they do not follow the steps of other companies that have made money from the city and fled like bandits? Think people!!! Just don't sit pretty in those city commission or board meetings and pretend to be city commissioners or board members, do your homework, make rational and intelligent decisions that will benefit the citizens...yeah you know...those that voted for you and even those that did not.
These Brownsville CHEEZMOZOS are a bunch of Iddiot Morons!
The absence of competition often is a signal that some official(s) have their hands under the table. It is as if Pat "15 percent" Lehman was running this venture. The city commission continues to be embarrassed by a city staff that fails to do their homework. The city commission is embarrassed too, because the City Manager doesn't know how to ask the right question in order to make sure his staff does it's "due diligence". This is just another embarrassment for the city. Remember too, we have a mayoral candidate who has been part of this embarrassment. He seems to be trying to keep a low profile, but unfortunately and elephant can't hide behind a marble.
Montoya's article is full of inaccuracies. Action on the proposal was delayed 25 days, not 21. This exclusive deal has been done in the dark with a convicted racketeer. The "rush" was to complete the deal without any transparency. 5 years ago this deal gets done without the public knowing anything until they read it in The Herald.
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Pan American Airways has a "Proposed Operation" plan on their web site for service to San Antonio, Monterrey and Tampico from Brownsville.
In the proposed operation plan they want to use outdated B737-200 planes that are no longer in production. These planes were made from 1967-1988, according to their Proposed Operation plan. How safe are these out-dated planes that Pan American Airways wants to use to carry passengers?
Where are the 70 cargo flights a month from Brownsville to destinations in Latin America, starting in 2011, that Pan American Airways said they would fly to?
Pan Am has no bond, no authorization from Department of Transportation, no resrvation ssytem, the lis goes on and on on what he does not have. I heard the arguments from Cheezmeh and I heard Quintanilla he was well informed and more convincing and knowledgeable than all those anarchist.
Con artists have always found Brownsville an easy mark. Our city officials draw salary, but on due diligence take a siesta. Here's the irony: Pat Ahumada thinks his retirement will be great with his monies from Carlos Quintanilla, but if he'd done his homework he'd know Carlos doesn't pay his debts.
Boy you guys don't get it, it is Fly Frontera, Public Charters have you check to see if they pay their debts, have an impeccable reputation, have established relationships within the airline industry, can deliver a jet to fly 23 people in Brownsville. I bet you have not done that.
Pat Ahumada is right on target on the issue, he was right with his questions. What has Pan Am done, why don't we have an airline. The answer is simple you have idiots like Bobby Cervantes and others who allow that companies with great credetials and a willingness to come to Brownsville are eaten by wolves. What do you not understand,we need a airline. Get one, why crtizize Quintanilla he did what no one else did.
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