City leaders agree that International Airport is ailing.

Last year, the airport handled 8.4 million passengers, roughly the same number we saw six years earlier. That’s

2.3 million less than Austin’s Bergstrom International Airport.

Along those same lines, Austin has 50 nonstop destinations to our 37, 15 airlines to our 11 and an average ticket price of only $293 to our $434.

You’ll find differences of opinion, however, when you talk about what caused the malady and how best to treat it.

Last Tuesday, City Manager Sheryl Sculley made it clear the treatment would involve a change of leadership, as she placed Assistant City Manager Carlos Contreras in the “primary lead” position for the city’s Aviation Department, essentially demoting Frank Miller, who has served as department director for the past six years.

At the heart of the airport issue — which was reignited by a recent Texas Public Radio series by Shelley Kofler — is a chicken-or-the-egg question: Are we losing out on nonstop flights because we haven’t attracted enough businesses to San Antonio, or are we failing to attract more businesses because we don’t have enough nonstop flights?

More Information Airport charged with courting more nonstops http://exne.ws/1LB9ZTA New leader put in charge of San Antonio airport http://exne.ws/1EqvYgv

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I posed the chicken-or-the-egg question a few days ago to City Councilman Joe Krier, whose district includes the airport, during a taping of KLRN’s “Texas Week.”

“We need more chickens and we need more eggs,” Krier said.

Contreras, who appeared on “Texas Week” with Krier, told me that Sculley assigned him to focus on three areas: expanded air service delivery, customer service at the airport and capital projects.

Contreras will work on garnering business and community support that he can take to airlines, to convince them there is a market for expanded flight service.

One of the strategies being considered is a short-term incentive package, in which the city would guarantee airlines a certain number of filled seats for particular coveted flights, and pay the difference if ticket sales fall short of the guaranteed number.

District 2 Councilman Alan Warrick has suggested San Antono should do a better job of branding itself as Military City U.S.A. District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño (who happens to be a pilot as well as an architect) told me he’d love to see the city work with airlines on service to Latin America, arguing that S.A. is uniquely positioned to be a hub for such flights. (He also suggests, only half-jokingly, that Spurs star Manu Ginobili, a legend in his native Argentina, could be enlisted to promote the idea.)

There also is a persistent school of thought that any long-term solution must include a bigger, better airport, to compete with state-of-the-art facilities such as Bergstrom, which opened in 1999.

In fact, Krier’s vision — which he calls a “global game changer” — does not involve competing with Austin, but joining forces with it, to build a regional airport that would serve the rapidly growing population along the I-35 corridor. Basically, a D-FW for Central Texas.

Krier’s argument is that San Antonio’s big challenge is establishing market strength, and a regional airport would allow us to combine our market muscle with that of Austin, and all the cities in-between.

Skeptics say Austin — with its relatively new airport and flourishing flight schedule — would have nothing to gain by partnering with S.A. on an airport. But that might not be true.

Krier said Mayor Ivy Taylor enlisted him last month to discuss the idea with Austin Mayor Steve Adler.

“I sat down with Mayor Adler and his chief of staff and they said, ‘Let us think about it,’” Krier said. “The mayor (Taylor) then saw Mayor Adler in San Marcos a couple of weeks ago, and he affirmed — and his staff called me back and said, ‘You bet, we would be interested in discussing a regional airport.’”

Look for the two mayors to announce the formation of a blue-ribbon committee very soon.

District 10 Councilman Mike Gallagher prefers the idea of a South Side airport, saying there’s more open space there for larger runways (a factor which Treviño argues is not crucial for expanded flight service) and would be an economic generator in that part of the city.

Whatever gets us more chickens and eggs sounds good to me.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470