Sun Valley Air hires consultants for strategic review
The Sun Valley Air Service Board has hired external expertise to review the business’ strategy. Couloir Consulting and David Madaras will spend six months conducting analysis of taxpayer-funded air services as well.
The aviation sector is undergoing a period of constant change. Recent profitability of various competitors is spurring companies to looks for efficiency measures, while the global fleet of commercial aircraft is set to grow at 3.4% CAGR to 2027, adding around 10,000 new planes – largely narrow and wide-body classes.
The Sun Valley Air Service Board is an organization which manages air space use across Blaine County and the cities of Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley in Idaho, US. As the combined authority prepares for a litany of changes in the coming years, the board has voted to approve a six-month contract with boutique firm Couloir Consulting and independent consultant David Madaras. The contract pays Madaras $3,000 a month, or $18,000 for a six-month period.
The news comes on top of Sun Valley Air already having drafted in the services of consultant Ron McNeil, for the past decade. A former executive with American Airlines, McNeil now works as a senior consultant out of the St. Louis office of US consulting firm Mead & Hunt.
Madaras is also chief operating officer for AirProxima, which is based in Ketchum and works to allow consumers to purchase one-way tickets on private aircraft. He has worked in finance with Barclays Capital and Citibank, according to the AirProxima website.
The major challenge which the contracted consultants will face is the changing nature of consumer demand which the Air Service Board must respond to. That includes the staffing of 20% fewer seats on direct flights to Los Angeles and Seattle, and 1.77% fewer seats on flights to Denver and San Francisco, while flights to Salt Lake City will grow by 22.4% next year. At the same time, the team will have to accommodate for Air Alaska stepping away from providing a nonstop service from the group’s jurisdiction to L.A. this winter.
Fly Sun Valley Alliance is understood to have recruited United to fill the gap, but the summer schedule is uncertain because Fly Sun Valley Alliance is still in negotiations.
Six of the 20 busiest airports in the world can be found in the US, placing the country in pole position to capitalize on projected aviation industry growth. It is estimated that global aircraft volume will expand 3.7% per year until 2025 to meet growing consumer and business demand.
