Boutique Air has first monthly passenger drop

Boutique Air had its first monthly passenger drop since it began serving Clovis, but reasons for the January numbers weren’t unexpected.

The monthly report, presented during the Tuesday evening Civil Aviation Board meeting at the Clovis Municipal Airport, was that Boutique completed 152 of 162 scheduled flights in January with 734 revenue passengers and 11 non-revenue passengers.

That’s down from December totals of 837 revenue passengers and all 158 flights completed.

The cancellations, Interim Airport Director Cody Mills said, were weather-related. Additionally, Boutique’s December numbers were aided by Christmas travel.

January’s total revenue passenger number is in line with November’s total of 732. Averages for the month were 4.83 passengers per flight and 23.67 per day, down from 5.3 per flight and 27 per day in December.

Entering January, the San Francisco-based company had only canceled four flights due to weather since it began service July 16. The 10 flights in a month seemed high by comparison, but board member Tye Curtis noted the carrier has completed 1,014 of 1,034 scheduled flights — 98.1 percent of its flights.

So far, Boutique has flown 4,467 revenue passengers on its 1,014 flights. City Manager Joe Thomas said the airport receives $200,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration for various infrastructure improvements, and the total bumps up to $1,000,000 if the enplanement number reaches 10,000 in a year.

In other business at the meeting:

• The board approved rules and regulations for hangar rentals.

• Mills gave a report on a November certification visit from the FAA. Mills said the airport was noted for some signage issues, which Mills said have since been fixed.

• Mills said two to three weeks of work is expected to start within the week on upgrades to the airport’s water system. The upgrade will allow for full circulation of water at the airport. Thomas said there is an effort to ask the state Legislature for money to connect the municipal water system to the airport, but noted there’s not much money to go around this year.