Airport shuttle misses true needs

Last winter’s pilot program providing hourly START buses between the town of Jackson and Jackson Hole Airport was long overdue. As we have written in the past, it’s inexcusable that in 2024 residents and visitors are still taking expensive taxis or phoning a friend most of the year to make the 9.5-mile journey from town to and from the busiest airport in Wyoming.

The discontinuation of the service last spring, coinciding with the end of lift-accessed skiing, was a disappointment. To make public transportation successful, it must be consistent, reliable, convenient and affordable. Right now we’re missing consistency and convenience.

The airport shuttle resumes for another winter on Dec. 14 — but misses out on Thanksgiving, the busiest national travel week of the year and traditionally one of the most popular travel times for residents, when airport parking is in acutely short supply. And as slated, the shuttle will end this winter before most residents head out en masse for spring travel.

So we wonder: Do the airport board and staff really want the shuttle to succeed? Do the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners, which have the authority to modify the airport’s budget and also oversee START, want the shuttle to gain traction? At a time when the airport is spending tens of millions of dollars on facilities for private jets, it should be making a commensurate investment in serving the broader travel community and helping achieve the goal of reducing single vehicle travel, especially in Grand Teton National Park.

Operating the shuttle is not a revenue generator, whereas the airport has financial incentive to continue collecting parking, taxi and rideshare fees. Although users pay fares to help fund the bus, the shuttle is a service, not a business. The airport should be the primary entity funding this service, and it’s going to take leadership from the airport board, town and county for it to succeed.

This winter’s shuttle also may struggle due to a reduced marketing investment. Tried-and-true methods of diverse marketing to residents and visitors have been trimmed at the direction of airport board members.

A crucial missing link to long-term success is a lack of car storage. Aside from a relative handful of passengers who can walk to the bus stops, everyone else has to drive downtown to catch the shuttle but has no place to park a vehicle while away. The airport board, Town Council and Board of County Commissioners have failed to include a dedicated parking facility among the airport’s planned capital projects, but instead the airport is moving forward with a $46 million terminal for private aviation and new administrative offices.

It’s inconceivable in this age that our community does not have a basic park-and-ride like every other airport of comparable size across the country. FAA policy published in the Federal Register has made clear that transportation to and from airports can be funded through airport revenues, provided there are no other stops along the route and the service is intended for “exclusive use” of airport passengers.

We encourage the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners to better scrutinize the airport’s budget and mandate a long-term solution to an appropriately executed, year-round shuttle program. With a business as profitable as JAC, the airport board should be required to provide year-round shuttles from the town of Jackson, and ideally with at least one nominally priced car storage facility.