By Juan MontoyaIn a victory for those vocal critics who would rather cut their nose to spite their face rather than making Brownsville the regional aviation hub for northern Mexico and attract investors here, Fly Frontera has decided to end its bid to provide the service here.
Citing a lack of political will in a majority of the Brownsville City Commission, Fly Frontera representatives scheduled to be here for Thursday's special meeting said they were withdrawing their proposal to provide low-cost, secure air travel from violence-wracked northern Mexican cities to Brownsville.
"We decided that it was no use trying to convince a city commission that was thinking more about political elections than about the good for the city that having a regional airline would have brought in terms of visitors and investments," said representative Carlos Quintanilla.
The agenda for Thursday's cancelled meeting contained an action item from Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport Director Larry Brown on approving the provision of the airline.
Instead, now with Fly Frontera withdrawing its proposal, the commissioners have before them a proposal by Hunt Pan-Am to provide passenger service to San Antonio and Monterrey on 120-passenger 727 jets.
Fly Frontera's proposal called for providing jet-prop aircraft with 30 passengers.
The math becomes instantly obvious. If critics charged that the passengers guaranteed to Fly Frontera to fill its 30 passenger planes, it is plain that filling a 122 passenger aircraft will instantly triple the guarantees that the city will pay to Pan Am to provide the service.
"Do the math," Quintanilla said. "If they complained about filling a 30-passenger plane, think what it will take to fill a 122 passenger plane both ways daily. You're talking about 844 passengers one way in one week, and another 844 on the return. That's 1,688 seats a week. They'll eat though the subsidy in no time. Good luck."
If Fly Frontera decides to continue the proposal to attract regional air service to the border area, Quintanilla said that the airline would probably try to approach cities like Harlingen and Edinburg.
"It became obvious that commissioners Eduardo Camarillo and Ricardo Longoria would not support the proposal because they feared their voting for it would incur the anger of the airline opponents," he said. "It's unfortunate that they thought about politics above what was good for their city."
30 comments:
I don't think anyone would fight someone who is trying to open a business. It only really becomes our issue when we (the taxpayer) are paying for it.
I am sorry.
But in the last 15 years, we have seen numerous US and mexico based carriers try to become the "regional carrier" for the area.
They can take the proposal to McAllen and Harlingen, but both of those cities have been there, done that (Continental, American, AeroMexico, etc..)
Good luck with Edinburg! I honestly hope they prove me wrong and it is a success.
Yet another failure by the current Brownsville City Commission and another backward step for this community. Fly Fontera will likely end up in another RGV city where the leaders can actually make a decision for the community and the community is likely to support. There is no leadership and no moral courage on the part of this commission. Camarillo and Ahumada will tear the city down rather than make any compromise to cooperate for the benefit of the city. Ahumada's "shrimp boat" leadership has us all hauling empty nets.
Uhhh..... JUAN... who in their FUCKING RIGHT MIND would want to fly to war zone Mexico with their fucking mass burial graves, cartels targeting foreigner DEATH PITS right now?? HEY motherfucker... go ahead and YOU give your pal QUINTALILLA 2 million for that shit.
We don't want it.
Edinburg and Harlingen have no interest in working with this con man. Quintanilla found a corrupt core in Brownsville that he could manipulate, not to mention a paid-for internet hack to be part of his propaganda machine.
Quintanilla, Ahumada and Atkinson misplayed the con by engaging ordinary citizens online in arguments that exposed their game. Even Pat's hastily called Town Forum was a disaster, primarily because of his lack of skill.
Although the bogus article above has Quintanilla leaving with dignity, the opposite is true. He left with his tail between his legs, a disgraced coward.
This is how the City of Brownsville, Texas has remained 20 years behind from the rest of the State and its unfortunate, that an opportunity like "Fly Frontera" was rejected by Mr. Camarillo and Mr. Longoria, two City Commissioners running for positions which prevented them from voting on something that was important to Texans on the border region facing a dangerous season of violence from Mexico, but this is how the politics work in Cameron County and its beginning to seem like a pattern, hopefully the eyes who care are watching.........how politicians manipulate elected positions, and just how long ago was Camarillo asking for the vote? And what did he do? Nothing, nor does he have the experience to be mayor either.
Clearly, this is a wake up call to all of Brownsville, Is this city going to be run by a group controlled by a few figures in town including Camarillo and Dr. Zavaleta and Mr. Tony Martinez who think they can shield themselves with a group who is loud and threatening and whose only achievements are to degrade and destroy, or is this city going to accept this wake up call, when elected officials withhold their vote in exchange for a vote because this is how a City Commission vote can be manipulated and often is.
good riddance to those clowns. now, get rid of pan am, and offer your 2.5 million to an established Mexican low cost carrier!!
So many Calabazas, working on the calabazistas.
so sad.. you can't even give credit where credit is due.. jump out of Quintanillas pocket rrun rrun... enough of the cheezmeh envy... join with them and fight together for the greater good of the community... cheezmeh united and made a difference, learn by example...
I for one am glad that the City won't be taking money from its citizens to give to another out-of-town company with no proven track record. I hope that our citizens will keep up the pressure and that we won't give any money to Pan Am either. If an entrepreneur wants to chase his or her dream, then do it with his or her own money, not my tax dollars.
Michael Cowen
Are there two Quintanillas? There must be because we have been hearing that Carlos no longer had a connection to Frontera and now we have a Quintanilla who is a spokesman for Frontera. Man, it is a small world after all.
The losers in all of this will be the many people who can no longer drive to Mexico, who are businessmen and women who are afraid to travel, to people like Jaime Zapata that could be alive today if he had an option to fly instead of drive. I had an opportunity to read the facebook thread of Cheezmeh it is a brutal assault between Cheezmeh and Bobby Cervantes, is that the kind of activist that we want in Brownsville. Camarillo had no backbone to take a position either for or against the project. It is a disappointment not with Quintanilla who took the initiative to bring something to the table, it is a disappointment in our leadership that once again Brownsville is left empty handed.
The failure was on the part of Camarillo who became a chicken shit with a few loudmouths.
Michael, why don't you say that about Imagine Brownsville and Fred Rustenberg he has received millions of dollars from Brownsville and nothing to show for. I am seing a white conspiracy here, Kendricks, Cowen, Rustenberg, Barton, Grove, etc. What are they trying to put forth a Republican Agenda in the Valley that is anti Mexican.
Rick Longoria said it was a good deal and that he would vote for it. What a chicken shit asshole for bailing on Mr. Q. For political reasons and for being a low rank pussy, he didn't take a stand and vote for something that was good for this community. What an idiot! All Mr. Q did was love you and praise you. And what did you do in return? Nothing. Don't leave Mr. Q. We need visionaries like you, and not backward thinkers like Rick Longoria.
Did Tony Martinez give Rick Longoria $5,000 to stab Carlos Quintanilla in the back?
"like Jaime Zapata that could be alive today if he had an option to fly instead of drive."
Quien es este PENDEJO?
Montoya, your years of credibility and respect earned as a brilliant journalist have to be called into question now, how can you have supported that snake oil Fly Frontera deal? Can you really tell us that you personally believe Fly Frontera had 40,000 passengers to ferry around in their first 365 days? Really? That there are teeming, swarming masses of shoppers in Monterrey and Tampico ready to fly here on the order of 90+ per day (let's not forget for the math to work you'd have to stow 6.5 passengers in the cargo hold every flight)to come shop at Target, Wal-Mart and our one mall? That there are hordes of tourists climbing the walls at the Brownsville airport clamoring to fly to Monterrey and Tampico to dodge bullets? Really? It's fucking preposterous, it always was, and you sir, know it.
@Anonymous coward who called me a racist but did not have the guts to sign his or her own name -- I don't support Imagine Brownsville either. I've earned my own money by running my own law firm, and I've done it without being corrupt. I've neither sought nor received tax dollars for any business I've run.
Some of my family members may support Imagine Brownsville, but if so they are doing it because they believe it will help the community. I personally disagree, but family members can disagree and still respect each others' opinions and motives. And to my knowledge, no one from my family has received a penny from Imagine Brownsville.
So stop trying to distract people from the truth by playing the race card.
Juan, I hope Quintanilla didn't pay you by check for this glorification of a scam artist. If so, frame it. It's worth more as art than a financial document.
Se rajaron porque no traen nada.
oh so Michael your family members support Imagine Brownsville and the waist of taxpayer dollars. What do we have to show for our million. A proclmation.
To anon there are many people who have died in Mexico driving the pendejo eres tu baboso read the newpapers. Ojo next person may be you make sure you fly and not drive pendejo.
Rrun rrun has always been an entertaining read. However, in this case, you have sold out ex-con scumbag from up north. You betrayed your people for calabasas of your own. You are a disappointment, and no better than the Conrado Cantu's of the world.
What a shame!
Continental used to run flights from Monterrey into McAllen. At first they ran twice daily. Then, after numbers dwindled, they went to daily. Some of those daily flights had as little as 1 or 2 people, but never over sixty. Even that was only around holidays. Then, they went to three flights a week until they eventually abandoned the route.
I'm sure if they were subsidized by the taxpa,yers, they would start up again. Might be a good time actually, bridge traffic is way down and riding the bus in Mexico is pretty dangerous these days
you tell 'em mike.....no tax money for someone's dream project...
no Michael but Imagine Brownsville has received money from us taxpayers and we have gotten jack shit except proclamations.
And I quote, "Gilberto Salinas of BEDC, while declining to discuss details of the confidential report, said PCI and CAT failed to meet all the metrics BEDC uses when deciding what if any incentives to give a company interested in Brownsville as a base of operation. Normally, BEDC would perform due diligence first, then make a recommendation to the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, which has access to sales tax revenue and awards incentives. In Fly Frontera’s case, however, Gallagher and other principals presented directly to GBIC, ..."
isn't it sad that cheezmeh knew what was going to happen to fly frontera and knew what the BEDC would find while your poorly written blog was still defending quintanilla?
to anon. with the Jaime Zapata comment:
No pendejo el pendejo eres tu. Y lo sigues siendo. Como te pones a comparar lo que paso en SLP con un empleado de HLS con el hecho de que si hubiera podido volar no le hubiera pasado esto.
Retrasado! mas que pendejo!
Quintanilla pays Juan to write a complementary blog then follows up by writing fake comments from fake citizens. I hope Carlos you're typing from Dallas.
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