WATERLOO -- Members of the Waterloo Air Service Development Committee (ASDC), a committee of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance economic development group, will attend a conference next month in Las Vegas as part of the committee's pursuit of additional airlines to service the Waterloo Regional Airport.

The conference is being hosted by Allegiant Air, a discount air service provider with headquarters in Las Vegas.

"Allegiant is one of the targets of our current marketing effort," said Steve Dust, president of the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, the parent organization of the ASDC. "We have been invited to attend an airport conference on the possibility of service. However, there have not been any commitments made by anyone."

Waterloo Regional Airport currently has just one service provider, Northwest Airlines, which operates flights to and from its hub in Minneapoils via its Northwest Airlink service. However, the ASDC is looking into other options to complement the airport's current service.

"We are going to aggressively begin pursuing other airlines that have found the Iowa mid-continent area critical already," said Dust. "Another part of our strategy is to begin recruiting airlines that are not traditional carriers. There are more of those that are extremely low-cost or intermittent-schedule operations that we will talk to about our airport, as well."

Dust declined to comment on details of the discussions with Allegiant except to confirm that the discussions were ongoing. Allegiant currently services airports in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, among 58 destinations in the United States.

The announcement of discussions with Allegiant Air was made at the Waterloo Regional Airport board meeting Wednesday morning in the airport conference room. The board also reviewed a draft of the airport's fiscal year 2009 budget, which will be subject to a board approval next month before a final draft is sent on to the city of Waterloo for approval

According to the budget, total expenses for the airport are expected to rise by $58,696 from the FY2008 budget. The largest increases in expenses from 2008 to 2009 were in regular salaries ($16,535), time and a half ($14,442), health insurance ($12,338) and utilities ($11,000). Revenues were expected to rise $15,450 from 2008 to 2009, with the biggest gains coming from gas sales ($9,000) and miscellaneous revenues ($3,500). In its current form, the budget will run an operating loss of $31,452, though airport director Brad Hagen said that figure would likely be reconciled by the city.

New contracts for automobile rental services were presented to the board. All three contracts were renewals for companies that already service the Waterloo Regional Airport. Avis and Hertz both operate on site, while Enterprise works from a remote location. Board member Cynthia Goro moved to have the length of all three contracts be changed from three years to one year so Waterloo Regional could re-negotiate if traffic increased. The motion passed, and the contracts will be presented to the three companies later this month.

Frank D. Dowie of PDCM Insurance reviewed insurance options for the Waterloo Regional Airport and determined that the current service provider, Phoenix Aviation, was still the airport's best option for insurance. The premium for Phoenix Aviation's insurance was $15,900 in 2006, $19,100 in 2007 and will be $20,628 in 2009.

Finally, a review of fares from Waterloo Regional Airport to various destinations for the month of December were similar to those of other regional airports and in line with expectations.

Contact Drew Andersen at (319) 291-1418 or drew.andersen@wcfcourier.com.