The city of Portland has pledged $200,000 to help the Coos County Airport District guarantee airline flights between Portland and North Bend.

Airport District commissioners have been scrambling to cover the revenue SkyWest Airlines said it needs to break even on its two round-trip flights a day between Southwest Oregon Regional Airport and Portland. The new air service will begin Oct. 12 at the North Bend airport, the day after Horizon Air’s final flight at the airport.

“We have a $200,000 commitment from the city of Portland to support those flights,” Chairman Mike Lehman said at Thursday’s district board meeting. “That will make up the rest of the $713,000.”

This is the first time airport Executive Director Gary LeTellier can remember Portland working with the airport.

“I don’t know what’s been done in the distant past,” LeTellier said. “It’s a coming together for us.”

LeTellier said it couldn’t have happened without  Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s coalition, made up of airport managers statewide, business leaders and government representatives. The group convened in July.

Dan Clem, director of the Oregon Department of Aviation, said that Portland’s mayor, Tom Potter, and mayor-elect, Sam Adams, introduced a resolution at last week’s city council meeting to support regional air service to Portland and allocate funds to assist their statewide partners. The resolution allows up to $300,000 to be divided between the North Bend and the Klamath Falls airports. Even though a specific amount wasn’t indicated for each of the airports, North Bend needed $213,000 and Klamath Falls, $76,000, to reach its goal of $620,000 to guarantee SkyWest’s revenue.

“The mayor and mayor-elect were very adamant about wanting to help,” Clem said on the phone on Thursday. “Given today’s marketing conditions, you have to partner. The coalition provided the bridge and the partnership.”

In a recent visit to North Bend, Clem said he saw a Horizon airplane that appeared to be full. The airline offers three or four round-trip flights to Portland a day. SkyWest is going to begin with two a day.

“I don’t think we’ll have to use hardly any, if any of this subsidy,” Clem said.

Commissioner Joe Benetti said that revenues the district makes from the Portland flights through landing fees, terminal fees, passenger facility charges and fuel taxes should counter any money they might have to pay SkyWest.

“You have the money pledged, but you also have to look at what the service will bring in,” he said.

In August, 3,379 passengers boarded Horizon airplanes to Portland, a 22.5 percent decrease compared to August 2007, according to a report by Airport Operations Manager Gene Cossey. However, 1,165 passengers flew on SkyWest aircraft between North Bend and San Francisco in August, with airplanes 72.2 percent full. This was an increase from July, when airplanes were 62.5 percent filled.

With the $213,000 commitment from Portland, that leaves $500,000 for the airport district  to raise. South Coast Development Council Director Ron Opitz said Thursday he received $115,000 in pledges from local businesses, including Sause Bros., the Coquille Economic Development Corp., Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Umpqua Bank, US Bank, Southwestern Oregon Community College and Bay Area Hospital.

If there are no further donations, LeTellier said the remaining $385,000 would come from the airport district’s contingency and reserve funds already budgeted for the fiscal year. He said there is about $500,000 in the reserve fund now, with another $400,000 projected to go into the fund by June.

“We’re not really concerned that we’ll have to dig into those guarantees, except for the first month,” LeTellier said. “A lot of people don’t realize we’ve restored the northbound service.”

The Port of Portland also committed to give the airport district $100,000 to advertise SkyWest’s North Bend-Portland service. Additionally, local businesses contributed $102,000 in promotional donations.

Clem will fly into the North Bend airport from Portland on SkyWest’s inaugural flight, which will land at about 8:01 a.m. Oct. 12, and he is asking representatives of the city of Portland to join him.

“Hopefully, the community will fly,” Clem said.