The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
More flights coming through Chicago By Katherine Nettles
The Gunnison Crested Butte (GUC) Airport continues its success streak of filling up flights and expanding markets and schedules in and out of Gunnison, and it appears that trend is on track to continue through the winter holidays. Similarly, lodging reservations for the valley are also pacing slightly up through January.
During the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) meeting last month, GUC air consultant Bill Tomcich reported that June, July and August were strong months for the airport with record passenger numbers for those months. “[Boutique air carrier] JSX expanded their flights considerably this summer and was operating up to 12 flights per week,” he said of the service from Dallas. Tomcich described load factors, the percentage of available seats occupied by paying passengers, as in the mid-70s. “They are very pleased with the Gunnison market,” he said.
There have been significant capacity increases this fall with United Airlines as well, which will continue through October 25 with three round-trip flights per day. “Bookings seem to be keeping up with those increases in capacity. So that is really encouraging,” said Tomcich.
United will run two flights per day from October 26 through November and its winter flight schedule will start on December 18.
The winter schedule will resume three flights per day from Denver and daily service from Houston—except for Tuesday—and expanded service through Chicago O’Hare on 11 weekends over the winter.
Tomcich said it turns out that grant funds originally intended to help with flights out of Dallas will be used to fund United’s 22 Chicago weekend flights this winter, with inbound flights on Fridays and Saturdays and outbound flights on Saturdays and Sundays.
In 2024/25 United tried out flights through Chicago on seven winter weekends, and apparently it went well enough to reinvest.
“[United] even has visions of growing it beyond that,” Tomcich said, and that might eventually include summer flights through Chicago. RTA executive director Scott Truex added that United has expressed interest in moving up to 30 trips per winter in the future.
Tomcich did have some bad news to report from American Airlines. A special fleet of aircraft that American uses for its flights into Gunnison (the Airbus 319) will be out of service this winter for maintenance, and the American schedule out of Dallas has been changed to accommodate that with two daily flights in a CRJ700, which is less reliable in winter weather and has in the past resulted in more cancelled or delayed flights.
Tomcich said American plans to temporarily reduce capacity during the holidays as well, but that has not happened yet. “The program is in very good shape. The only setback is a temporary one with the likelihood that American will be flying their regional jets this winter with different planes and fewer flights.” He said the local air command is exploring some creative solutions like shifting flights and aircraft around with other resort destinations as well.
Lodging reservations ramping up
Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) director Andrew Sandstrom reported that winter marketing kicked off at the end of September, and so far, revenue is pacing slightly ahead of last year. “That is mostly due to rate increases,” he said, and reiterated that TAPP’s marketing this winter is heavily focused on the flight markets to bring in more advance bookings, longer stays and higher spending.
Sandstrom updated the Crested Butte News that winter lodging rates are currently pacing about 5% higher than last winter. “We are seeing occupancy currently outpacing last year in December and January, but lagging behind in February and March,” he said. “So very similar to what they are seeing in flight data. All of that said, we are still very early in the booking window and so we hope to make up some more ground.”
TAPP officials have expressed hope that they can coordinate more effectively with Vail Resorts’ marketing of CBMR and other ski industry marketing campaigns by starting their own advertising a bit earlier this year.
