GILLETTE, Wyo. — SkyWest/United Express will begin offering Gillette’s airport a second flight on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting Nov. 2, Campbell County Airport Board Chair Owen Lindblom said this afternoon.
With the flight additions, the airport will have two flights per day every day of the week, he said. The change brings in an extra 100 seats weekly.
“We were offered that a couple of weeks ago, and, naturally, we accepted,” Lindblom said. “Our ridership has been very strong for several months, so I think it will be permanent as long as the demand is there.”
Executive Director Todd Chatfield said that the flights will depart from Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport to Denver International Airport at 5:41 a.m. and arrive from Denver back in Gillette at 1:30 p.m. The flights will then depart for Denver at 2:15 p.m. and return to Gillette for the night at 9:30 p.m. The airport has been without the second flight on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about 18 months.
“This isn’t back to pre-COVID, but another 100 seats a week will help our local passengers with more flight options and hopefully lower airfare,” he said. “We are still working on increasing weekly flights as they become available.”
United Airlines said in its third-quarter report, which it published Oct. 17, that it has opened two new United Club locations in Denver and reached the most mainline departures in over 20 years at 300 daily departures. The quarter had a 10% year-over-year seat capacity growth. Daily departures increased on over 20 routes year-over-year.
The airport board will meet at 4 p.m. Oct. 18. Agenda items for the quarterly meeting with Campbell County commissioners include a discussion of the flight schedule, airport construction projects, and runway 16/34 rehabilitation.
The regular meeting, which will follow, will include a report from Chatfield.
According to Chatfield’s written report, the airport had 4,417 passengers fly in and out of the airport in September, which brings the total so far for the year to 39,780 passengers.
The airport has hired a new operations employee, so the airport operations department is fully staffed, the report also said.
“We feel that Jeff [Mooney] will be a good fit for the airport,” the report said.
Mooney, who worked for 23 years at the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, started Oct. 16 as an airport operations tech, Chatfield said in an email Oct. 17.
Chatfield said the two added weekly flights will not be a big issue for contractors involved in operations.
