Air service into valley shifting focus from summer to winter

JSX adding seats for winter

[  By Mark Reaman  ]

The airport service into the Gunnison-Crested Butte airport this summer has been busy and despite a slight cutback planned for this winter from American Airlines out of Dallas, the number of seats will be almost on par with last ski season thanks to the new boutique air carrier JSX Air. The JSX business-class air service that the RTA helped fund to the tune of $90,000 is going gangbusters this summer and is now looking at adding direct flights into GUC from both Dallas and Austin.

Summer flight service is winding down and the United service out of Denver went from three flights a day to two flights on August 20. From September 30 to December 14, that route will go down to one flight a day. United passenger numbers out of Denver are up 33% compared to last summer. “The Gunnison airport is way up in total passengers going through it even with all the construction,” said Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) air consultant Kent Myers of Airplanners LLC. 

JSX started business class flights from Dallas to GUC this summer and expanded the number of flights coming in each week given how quickly people used the service. Given that success, they have indicated they will fly into GUC this winter.

Myers’ partner Bill Tomcich told the RTA board that starting December 15, United has scheduled two flights a day from Denver for the ski season. A third flight will be added during the busy March spring break and then return to the single daily flight on March 25. Meanwhile United will fly once daily from Houston for most of the ski season. American out of Dallas is also scheduled for once-a-day service to Gunnison for most of the ski season between December 15 and April 3. Tomcich said American will not be adding flights during busy periods like it did last year so overall there is a decrease in American seats this coming winter.

Myers noted that while American is cutting back a bit from Dallas, the addition of JSX will make up the difference.

“From a high-level basis, we lost some seats compared to last year, but it could work out well with the Jet Suite X winter service,” he said. “We have had a brief conversation with JSX and they submitted a proposal to the RTA, but I told them they needed to go back and sharpen their pencil on that. They understand and hope to get us a new proposal. They understand that the Dallas to Gunnison flight is on their nickel. We are all looking at adding a direct JSX flight from Austin, so we’ll negotiate that. But overall, they will make up for the loss of the American seats.”

Myers and Tomcich both said the quick success of the JSX flights into Gunnison is a bit of an anomaly in the business describing it as “stunningly successful.” Myers said there appeared to be three big factors involved in its success. The first is that Gunnison County real estate companies helped promote the air service to their clients. He said the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP) did a very good job of marketing the flights on social media. He said the third factor was that the demand was there waiting to be filled.

Tomcich added that JSX does a good job of marketing itself and partnering with companies, and for example, passengers using JSX can accumulate United miles.

Local realtor Scout Walton was at the meeting and extolled the JSX service. “I hear great comments about the service,” he said. “People are definitely using it and it is good to see everyone benefiting from this. I encourage you to continue the service.”

Nick Klaus of the new Elevation Hotel ownership group agreed. “I echo Scout’s comments. We’re based in Dallas and love the service opportunity,” he said.

In a related matter, the RTA has completed its summer survey of passengers and while it is too early to see conclusions, Myers said 1,472 surveys were completed which was three times the amount of any previous survey. Data is being compiled to be shared with the RTA board in a future report.