Gunnison airport to see more flights

Summer and winter flights expanding

By Mark Reaman

It is working like a positive feedback loop: with more flights and better reliability at the Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport (GUC), more passengers are using the facility and that is leading to more flight options.

Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority  air consultant Bill Tomcich reported to the RTA board at the February 21 meeting that winter passenger bookings continue to pace way ahead of last year and United Airlines continues to be bullish on GUC. “Things continue to look good for the Gunnison airport,” he said.

Tomcich reported that February bookings were 16% ahead of 2024, March is looking 21% ahead of last year while April bookings are 34% ahead from a year ago. He noted that United will be running an extra flight to GUC in April compared to last year.

“March will be very busy at the Gunnison Airport with a lot of different flights coming in,” he said. “There will be extra flights from Denver and new flights from Chicago along with Dallas and Houston. We saw a good last-minute pop with bookings for the Chicago flight. United is bullish on that Chicago route and have already loaded them for next winter starting in December.” 

Tourism and Prosperity Partnership executive director John Norton said the increase in flights and reliability has more local residents using the Gunnison airport. He said it appears about 25% of the passengers in January were locals. Between a constriction of air fares between Gunnison and Denver along with better reliability and more options, the local leakage to other airport options is shrinking. 

He said January was smooth in terms of operations and airline performance, in part because there were no major snow issues. That changed a bit in February with a major storm that resulted in some delays. He and airport manager Rick Lamport noted that the American flight out of Dallas experienced some major mechanical issues that resulted in some passengers having to spend an extra night in the valley, including some in the airport. 

Tomcich was excited for the summer flight schedule as well. “United is so impressed with Gunnison they are moving up the start of the third daily flight to begin on May 23. That will run through September 24,” Tomcich said. “It will be a great summer schedule with Denver, Houston and JSX out of Dallas. We have a lot of seats to fill.”