The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
First time since 2016
[ By Katherine Nettles ]
The Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) board approved going into a contract with United Airlines for a few different changes this year, which include curtailing low producing Tuesday flights between the Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport (GUC) and Houston this winter while adding flights between Gunnison and Chicago. Flights are pacing ahead for this winter in general, and between United, American Airlines and boutique air carrier JSX, there will be more flights coming into the valley than ever before.
Nixing Tuesdays to Houston (after the holidays)
The board first decided during their September 20 meeting to renew a contract with United to provide air service between Houston and Gunnison. The RTA had been in talks with United about how to reduce the minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) between United and the RTA. MRGs protect the airline in the event flights are not financially successful and the RTA agrees to ensure flights this way to maintain the service it wants.
RTA air consultant Bill Tomcich explained that United was receptive to the RTA’s request to find ways to minimize MRGs by reducing flights that underperform this winter, the most common ones occurring on Tuesdays. Tomcich said United accepted his proposal to therefore cut Tuesday flights to and from Houston after the holidays, from January 7 through the end of March. The staff and the local air command board recommended the idea, and the RTA board agreed to signing the contract for six flights per week and guaranteeing 89 total roundtrips. The 13 fewer Tuesday flights reduced the MRG from $560,000 to $464,228.
“I think this will improve our chance of success by not having the weakest performing day of the week,” said Tomcich. He added that United is increasing capacity 50% this year between Gunnison and Denver from two flights per day to three. “So this is actually going to help those Tuesday flights perform over Denver without a competing flight direct out of Houston,” he said.
Chicago service in February/March
Next, Tomcich presented another change that the RTA has been pitching to United for some time in getting air service between GUC and Chicago.
Tomcich said United was receptive to the idea this year, noting “Gunnison is the only ski market that they serve that does not have a nonstop flight out of Chicago O’Hare.”
Tomcich said he originally pitched a Saturday only flight, but United’s idea of an inbound Saturday afternoon flight, which benefits travelers connecting from the East Coast, and a Sunday morning return, was an even better option.
“There are a lot of Epic passholders in the Chicago area because of Wilmot,” he said. Wilmot is a Vail Resorts-owned ski area in nearby Wisconsin.
The seven-week run of flights would begin in February with President’s Day weekend and run through March. The MRG for the Chicago contract would be slightly less than $118,000.
“If this is successful…this is something we could look at for the entire ski season next year, or possibly even two flights a week,” concluded Tomcich.
GUC manager Rick Lamport said the last time United carried flights between Gunnison and Chicago was 2015/2016. He said he was highly in favor of the move, which has been a discussion point among RTA board members for several years.
“I think it’s worth a try,” Lamport said.
“This is a way to dip our toe in the water,” said RTA executive director Scott Truex. “And we will set the bar on success [on these flights] pretty high.”
The board agreed unanimously and authorized the contract with United for seven weekly round trip flights this winter from Chicago for an MRG cap not to exceed $117,978.
“Now all we’ve got to do is fill it,” said Truex.
Lamport said he would also research previous numbers and statistics on the size of the Chicago market.
General outlook
Tomcich also reported that flights have performed well this summer, with strong load factors but a slight drop in September that evened out toward the end of the month. “One of the factors that helped drive August this year compared to last year was two of the days associated with Labor Day weekend this year were in August,” he said. “And that’s also a big reason why September is not pacing as strong year over year. And we’re seeing that across the entire industry.”
JSX was up about 12% in August with load factors around 73%.
Future bookings look good, with October and November both pacing ahead of last year by 58% and 63%, respectively. “But we also have double the capacity,” Tomcich noted of increased air service for fall. “Those are very good numbers considering how many more flights and seats we have. We’ve got to keep the pedal down on the marketing efforts.”
For winter, all five months are also pacing double digits ahead, almost exactly matching the 20% increase in flight capacity with United adding a third daily Denver flight from mid-December through the end of March.
American Airlines schedules are essentially identical to what they were last year, said Tomcich, with Dallas air service starting twice daily on December 19, then going to one flight per day in January, and finishing the ski season with an extra Saturday flight from late February through early March.
Tomcich’s last comment was that the Colorado Governor’s Tourism conference in Mt. Crested Butte last week would feature Laura Jackson, vice president of air service development at Denver International Airport. She was on a panel discussing connectivity across Colorado’s airports.
The conference was completely sold out, he added. “Which is a great thing to have in this valley.”
