A consultant told the Logan-Cache Airport Advisory Board on Wednesday that the community must offer $1.2 million in incentives to lure Frontier Airlines' new commuter-air subsidiary, Lynx Aviation.

"Airlines are going to the airports that have the potential for profit," said Fred Davis, of Tri-Star Marketing Co. in Irvine, Calif. "They want the communities to share their risk."

Of the incentive, about $900,000 needs to be in cash to cover any airline losses during the first months of operation, said Davis, who has been working with the airport for five years.

He and the co-chairmen of the committee working to attract an airline - Brent Miller and Bruce Bishop - spent 30 minutes before the council detailing why Logan is a good bet for an airline. It has enough people, businesses and a university to make it a lucrative market for two daily flights of the 70-passenger planes to and from Denver.

Logan was one of 20 cities that made a short list for service by Lynx, and the airline began serving four of those cities last year with nine new planes.

Lynx plans to take delivery on 10 more Q400s soon, so the Logan-Cache Airport needs to be poised with an offer of incentives, Davis said.

"We just have to get them to believe like we believe," he said. "The window is short."

The airport authority will kick in some of the money, probably including a waiver of landing fees for the first six months, and private businesses and Utah State University are expected to donate significant sums.

Sandy Emile, the chief executive of the Cache Chamber of Commerce, told the board that air service is "desperately needed" by Cache County to help it attract manufacturing businesses.

The airport has been preparing for commercial air service for a decade, spending $11 million in federal and state money on infrastructure. The main runway was lengthened to 9,020 feet and widened to 100 feet.

And on Wednesday, the long-awaited Instrument Landing System finally went into service.

While construction was under way, Davis and airport Manager Rich Stehmeier met with a half dozen airlines.

None was interested in flying between Logan and Salt Lake City - it's too short a flight to make money - but Frontier was interested in Logan becoming one of the midsized communities feeding passengers into its Denver hub.

Lynx could make a $3 million profit serving just 75,000 passengers a year, Davis said, in part because it uses planes that are 40 percent more fuel-efficient than regional jets.

kmoulton@sltrib.com