Valley revenues rising but tourism is flat

Local travelers are keeping increased flights going strong 

By Katherine Nettles 

The Gunnison Valley seems to have settled into a relatively consistent number of visitors over the past few years, however with lodging rates still increasing and more flights coming in and out of the Gunnison Crested Butte Airport (GUC), lodging tax revenues and accessibility are on the rise.

Gunnison County Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) executive director Andrew Sandstrom reviewed some tourism trends during a recent RTA meeting last month showing that over the past five years, there has been a slight decrease in visitors but gains in lodging tax. “That has been due to rate increases and not increases in occupancy,” he said. “This summer, we are about flat to up about 1% in occupancy when we look at June through September. And the rates are up about 5%. We’ve seen a little bit of waning demand, but rates continue to rise.”

Since 2018, visitor numbers have totaled between 700,000 and 800,000 people annually with a record of about 830,000 in 2021. In 2024, there were about 670,000. 

 June tourism was down slightly, July is up slightly, and August and September are projected to be flat from last year, according to Sandstrom. “That’s some general pacing on what we’re seeing in the tourism realm.”

However, the air program at GUC continues to grow with strong numbers—a phenomenon credited to increased local demand. RTA airline consultant Bill Tomcich gave an air service update that May flights went well, with reliability high and one flight cancelled due to thunderstorms in Denver. “Load factors with two daily flights were an impressive 62%,” he added, compared to a 67% load factor in 2024 with significantly lower capacity. 

“That’s really encouraging news, the fact that the market demand is keeping up with the flight increases. And it’s really driven by local travelers,” emphasized Tomcich.

He said summer flights look strong with substantial (42%) flight capacity increases as United Airlines added a third daily flight to Denver from late May that continues through late October. “Based on advance bookings, it looks like the market is keeping up with that,” said Tomcich, noting bookings are pacing 27% ahead. United’s Houston weekend flights have also resumed from late June through August 17, and JSX started their seasonal service between Dallas and Gunnison in early June, now offering daily service for the first time. “So clearly JSX is also pleased with how the market is performing,” said Tomcich.

Winter proposals

Tomcich said there are some exciting opportunities on the table from United for winter as well with some subsidies involved that would come from the RTA. 

United has offered two proposals: one for Houston service seven days per week for winter 2025/26 and one for Chicago either once or twice per week. 

The Houston service schedule United proposed would start on December 18 through April 5, reinstating the Tuesday service that was absent last year. That schedule would have a $221,000 minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) cap from the RTA, which Tomcich noted has been lowered from $464,000 last year. The RTA ended up paying $288,000 for its six-day schedule in 2024/25. 

The Chicago flight schedule options are either one weekend round-trip flight per week from December 18 through April 5, with an MRG cap of $181,000 or two weekend round trips per week for the same period, with a MRG cap of $200,000 or more.

“United is very pleased with the performance of all flights into the GUC,” said Tomcich. He said it was the first time since he had worked with United that MRGs had gone down. He attributed that to fuel costs decreasing, and higher load factors. 

He said the GUC air command does not actually want the extra week in April, as demand falls off, and prefers to end the schedule on March 29 instead. He said they might not hear a response to that request for another couple weeks due to various vacation schedules. 

The board agreed unanimously to authorize the board chair to enter into the agreement with United for the Houston flight, with permission to further negotiate to get the MRG lowered further if possible. 

Tomcich said there has been “some spirited discussion at the air command” and that they prefer two flights per week, but for a shorter period and while also being mindful of the other air program growth as well. 

“We’re looking at sort of a compromise between these two,” he said with one trip guaranteed for the season but additional flights around holidays and stopping in late March rather than early April. Tomcich said they were still waiting on MRG cap information for that schedule, but it would be less than $350,000. 

Board members had more questions about the additional flights during busier times, but after some extensive discussion of those lopsided demands around holidays, the evolving air service program and how United typically expands service, the board also unanimously authorized the board chair to negotiate this contract and potentially sign on with United for an MRG cap not to exceed $350,000.