The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Brainstorming session for March
by Mark Reaman
While nothing will happen this spring when airline flights temporarily cease coming into the Gunnison airport, the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) wants to brainstorm ideas on how to help the local business traveler. A couple of public work sessions will be held in early March to reach out to the flying business community.
United Airlines informed the community this fall that it would not fly between Denver and Gunnison after the ski area closed until June 8. This frustrated some local business travelers. About 22 people a day on average took that spring flight. The RTA guarantees airline seats during the ski season and summer tourist season but has never spent money for spring flights.
“How deep is that business market in the valley?” asked RTA airline consultant Kent Myers of Airplanners, LLC at the December 11 RTA meeting. “Is it 50 people? 100 people? I don’t know. But it is worth reaching out to try to see what they would like.”
“We can invite them to have a conversation with the board,” added RTA executive director Scott Truex.
Community Flights partner Scott Stewart had come to the RTA with a proposal from a charter airline called Fresh Air. That airline said it would fly into GUC from Denver this spring with a 50-seat regional jet. They were asking for a guarantee that would require the RTA to put up about $500,000 but Truex said if a standard number of seats were filled the guarantee would likely cost the RTA much less.
“It is a compelling story,” said Truex. “But since the airport will be closed in the spring of 2017 for runway upgrades maybe it is something we look at for 2018. The prep time for this year is really short.”
“The challenge for this spring would be the call to action, education and the half million dollars,” said Myers.
“Aircraft performance is an issue as well,” said Truex.
“You never know if these smaller charter programs will stay in business,” admitted Myers. “It’s just the way it is.”
Myers said there was another charter he knew about called Boutique Air that could fill the gap. It flies nine passenger aircrafts and Myers said they could perhaps fly two or three trips a day to Denver.
“The world out there is changing,” said Myers. “It is worth reaching out to the people who might use this to see if they really would.”
“That is probably better than to just get something in here this spring and throwing it at the wall to see if it sticks,” said RTA chairperson Paula Swenson. “We appreciate everyone thinking out of the box to figure something out but let’s engage that community and come up with something for 2018.”
“Let’s keep in mind we have a couple of different flavors of business travelers,” said RTA board member Jonathan Houck. “Some might fly every week. I know others that go out for 60 days and then come back for two months and do it again.”
“Until we ask, we won’t know,” said Myers. “We could probably do a couple of focus groups this winter. I want to reach out to these business people and let them know we are serious about this.”
The RTA is also in discussion with Alpine Express to see if they can help subsidize a regular bus trip to the Montrose Airport the next couple of spring periods to help those hoping to fly during those 65 days. Details are still being worked out.
Business traveler John Norton said most business travelers would likely prefer to hop in their car and do the drive themselves, so he said he wouldn’t expect much participation. Swenson said they had received feedback that such a shuttle system between Gunnison and Montrose would be used.
Dr. John Tarr said he would appreciate the RTA doing whatever it could to get more daily flights between GUC and Denver. He said 20 years ago there were probably six flights a day to choose from and going to Denver for a meeting was very convenient. He and many others miss those days. “It’s not likely those days will come again,” he admitted. “But it would be nice for the local community to get an early morning flight and a late afternoon flight to and from Denver.”
Tarr will be part of the March focus group.
The RTA board tentatively set a morning meeting in Gunnison and a late afternoon meeting in Crested Butte on March 10 to discuss the topic and get some feedback on how better to serve that segment of the community.
