The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Summer is a more robust period for them
[ by Mark Reaman ]Boutique air carrier JSX is taking a pass on flying between Dallas and Gunnison this ski season. JSX flies out of Love Field in Dallas and began serving Gunnison in the summer of 2022. While summer service has been robust in part because there are no other direct flights between Dallas and Gunnison, winter has been a tougher market because American Airlines flies to GUC during ski season.
“We were informed by JSX earlier this week that they were planning to cut this winter’s service,” confirmed Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority air consultant Bill Tomcich. “What I can offer is that while JSX does very well during the summer months at GUC when they are the only operator to offer nonstop flights between Dallas and Gunnison, they have struggled for the past two winters when forced to compete against American.”
JSX’s 30 passenger jets offer business class amenities and passengers do not have to go through normal airport security so can show up 20 minutes before departure. Amenities include free drinks and snacks and customers can bring small dogs on board for the trip for free.
“JSX has been a great partner, and I’ve spoken to many of our Dallas visitors and second homeowners who just love the service,” said Tourism and Prosperity Partnership executive director John Norton. “We didn’t speak to JSX prior to the decision to depart Gunnison was made, and I’m hoping there’s a path to have JSX reconsider.”
One JSX customer said she is disappointed in the decision. Nancy Miller said she had booked a JSX flight for late December/early January and it was significantly cheaper than a seat on American. When going to make a change, the JSX website wouldn’t allow it, so she called customer service and was told that route was being cancelled for 2024 and was informed that while there would be no winter service, JSX would resume summer flights on the Dallas-Gunnison route in 2025.
The JSX online scheduling calendar shows the flights will stop at the end of September.
Tomcich said he connected with JSX representatives again this week and was told JSX is facing some resource constraints, and this has forced them to cut some of their lowest performing routes. He said the Dallas to Gunnison flight was not the only route that’s been cut for the winter. They also cut two routes into Denver/Boulder/Rocky Mountain Airport (BJC) effective December 3.
In a statement from the company released Tuesday, JSX marketing and customer strategy senior director Ben Kaufman said the move was temporary. “JSX will seasonally pause service to Gunnison/Crested Butte after September 30, 2024, but looks forward to resuming its award-winning public charter flights next spring. To be the first to know when ticket sales resume, sign up for our newsletter at www.jsx.com. It’s our distinct privilege to offer hop-on jet service to the people of Gunnison/Crested Butte and all of us at JSX are already counting the days until we see you again next year.”
“While we are disappointed that we won’t have JSX service this winter, we respect the decision and we look forward to seeing JSX flying in and out of Gunnison again next summer,” said RTA executive director Scott Truex.
