It couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Blaming costly fuel and a passenger shortage, Horizon Air announced Friday it would end flights between North Bend and Portland on Oct. 11.

The decision dampens a pair of celebrations planned at Southwest Oregon Regional Airport. The airport’s new $20 million terminal will have its grand opening on Tuesday, and SkyWest Airlines will celebrate its first San Francisco flight the following Monday.

“The timing just sucks,” said Mike Lehman, Coos County Airport District’s commission chairman. Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Lehman had just found out an hour earlier while browsing the Internet.

“It smacks you on the side of the head,” he said.

The passengers who rely on SkyWest will suffer the most.

“With no flight to Portland,” Lehman asked, “how do we serve our taxpayers?”

Horizon’s 12 North Bend employees will be offered other jobs, but they could be anywhere in the nation, Horizon’s vice president of marketing and communication, Dan Russo, said.

“Any job that they’re qualified for in Horizon’s system — where they have openings,” Russo said by phone Friday afternoon.

Passengers buy more than 70,000 tickets on the Portland route’s four daily flights each year, according to Airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier. Now the closest service to Portland will be in Eugene.

“Though disappointed, we understand that Horizon’s management is being forced to restructure the airline relative to the current economic downturn and the rising cost of fuel,” LeTellier said.

But Lehman said there could be a spark of hope that SkyWest might add a northbound flight and expand its southbound service.

“My understanding is they put it in the planning process,” he said. “It will take some time.”

In the meantime, Lehman said the airport will freeze hiring and new projects. An airport commission meeting was called for 10 a.m. Wednesday in the mezzanine of the new terminal building, 1100 Airport Lane.

Lehman said there is a direct link to fuel prices, and officials had feared something like this for months. Another big factor was the drop-off of winter tourism on the South Coast.

“I’m sure they looked at it and said, ‘Why go through those headaches?’” he said.

Russo agreed.

“High fuel prices are definitely aggravating the situation,” Russo said. “On a year-round basis, we’ve just always had trouble making money on the route.”

Although the impact on the North Bend airport is significant, Lehman said it won’t be calamitous.

“Long-term, we’ll probably be OK,” Lehman said. “Short term — it’s just emotional. It’s not panic time. It’s just doggone-it time.”

The airline has been serving Southwest Regional Oregon Airport since 1982.

“There are very big swings there,” Russo said. “It hasn’t generated a sufficient return for the investment of flying there.”

Across the nation, Horizon is undergoing a fleet transition — getting rid of its Q200 aircraft that seat 37 passengers and switching to Q400s, which hold 76. The smaller aircraft should be gone by the end of October, replaced by the larger, more fuel-efficient ones. Russo said there were concerns over the smaller airports filling the larger airplanes.

Flights between Portland and Klamath Falls were canceled for the same reasons — fuel prices and seasonal slowdown. Horizon has 10 employees in Klamath Falls, who have been offered the  option of positions elsewhere.