Nevada Focus: Airport program may pit Mammoth against Tahoe

And by the way, Tahoe should hurry.

Mammoth Mountain may not be a big competitor right now, but Tahoe's Sierra neighbor to the south has brought in a hired gun to devise a commercial air plan for that community.

When Intrawest Corp. increased its ownership of Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort from 33 to 58 percent last year, the resort's marketing department was revamped.

Rob Perlman was brought on as senior director of marketing and his first directive was to get an air program off the ground.

Perlman had done just that in a four-year stint with Vail-Beaver Creek Resorts in Colorado. Perlman spent the first 2 1/2 years at Vail as the communications manager. But he soon shifted to marketing, where he was instrumental in developing a program linking 12 major cities to the Eagle County Airport via direct flights.

With this program in place, air travel to Vail increased from 210,000 seats per season to 320,000 seats.

Now Perlman is hoping to work the same magic at Mammoth, just southeast of Yosemite National Park and a three-hour drive from South Lake Tahoe.

"We don't really consider ourselves a competitor with Lake Tahoe," says Perlman, who lived and worked here for a summer after graduating from college. "That's not our focus. Tahoe is a different sort of vacation destination."

But Mindy Johnke of Oasis Aviation, the fixed-base operator at Lake Tahoe Airport, says, "I know Rob Perlman, and he doesn't think small."

"If Mammoth gets air service, of course they will be a major competitive threat," she adds.

"I've been keeping my eye on resorts such as Vail, Telluride and Mammoth, and it is a critical time for (Lake Tahoe) right now," Johnke said. "These other resorts are making huge strides and we need to keep pace. At this point Mammoth is not much of a threat. But after what Perlman did at Vail ... yes, we should be worried."

Perlman instituted a program which included working with American, Delta, Northwest, United, Continental and America West airlines on scheduling and flight promotion.

"I saw my mission as finding a way to promote awareness of the Vail Valley," Perlman said. "And that awareness did grow, by 100,000 (airline) seats."

With that success on his resume, the Evergreen, Colo., native was lured to Mammoth last July and started a similar air strategy with the town of Mammoth Lakes and the Mammoth Lakes Airport.

"We've made significant investments in the airport," said Mammoth Lakes community development director Mike Vance, who has helped to coordinate a series of community workshops to hammer out specifics of the city's dream - to become a mammoth presence in the destination resort market.

"Mammoth gets about 22,000 skier visits per day currently," Vance said. "And that's without having a commercial airline serving us."

Intrawest, a Canadian development corporation which also owns parts of other ski resorts or is in cooperative deals with such as Squaw Valley and Whistler, British Columbia, is investing heavily in Mammoth. The company is planning several projects at Mammoth Mountain, including a 174-room condominium-hotel which should be completed in 1999.

"The timing is conducive to getting a major airline in here," Perlman said. "The resort is in a position financially for the airlines to take us seriously. We've already had a series of informal discussions with contacts I helped establish in Vail."

The airlines are vitally important, according to Perlman, because people who arrive by air tend to stay longer than drive-in tourists.

"It's what they call 'warm beds' in the resort business," Perlman said. "Weekend visitors are crucial. If we want to be a major force in the ski industry, we have to draw from a wide base."

Johnke says Tahoe should have an advantage because it's a year-round destination.

"But instead we find ourselves lagging behind," she says. "I'm no expert, but the longer we wait, the farther behind we'll be."

The future of Lake Tahoe Airport could also be at stake. As it stands now, the airport only caters to private planes. Oasis, which sells fuel and provides other services to the airport, only has three full-time employees. In 1991, the last full year that American Airlines serviced the airport, Oasis employed 10 people full time.

"That obviously impacts the economy," Johnke said. "The airport is key."

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