The Mammoth-Yosemite airport east of Mammoth Lakes along US 395 was originally an emergency airstrip for the U.S. Army Air Corps. In the 1970s it was owned by Mammoth Mountain, who could not make a go of it, and sold it to Mono County. During this time the runway was extended to the east. Federal grants provided certain lands for the airport. In 1991, the Town of Mammoth Lakes, incorporated in the mid-1980s, bought the airport from Mono County with the idea of making Mammoth a destination resort.
The Town has not been able to make a go of it either. Most destination travelers do not fly to rural airports, but use ground transportation from big-city airports. Rural airports get mostly regional travel, and relatively few visitors. Failure to recognize these facts ensured the Town's failure to get either destination visitors or regional air service (see later details).
An improper development agreement in 1997 encumbered federally-funded land. The 2000 expansion proposal, like that in 1997, was based on an incorrect layout and correspondingly incorrect cost estimates.
The FAA did approve the incorrect layout in 2002, along with a grant for about $31 million with 10% matching of funds from the Town. The Town is responsible for land side improvements such as a new terminal and parking lots, estimated at about $10 million.
These costs are in 2000 dollars, and are obsolete now because of the wrong layout and the recent jump in construction costs.
The approval and the funding were challenged by the State of California and others and have been overturned by a federal court.
Present Terminal Entrance.
Mt. Morrison and Convict Canyon in background.
So far the Town has spent about $2 million, or $250 for every local man, woman, and child, on this boondoggle, not including annual losses for the past 14 years.
- History - Find out what happened.
- Next Steps - What's to be done now?
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