Then there are others, like Bayfield resident Rick Vojta, who rely on the airport often to travel for work.
According to the Global Business Travel Association, Americans make more than 488 million trips via airplanes annually for business purposes. Though businessmen and women in the Four Corners region account for a small percentage of that number, they do exist.
Vojta, a commercial real estate appraiser who works for a company headquartered in Denver, flies out of the regional airport to various locations to serve his clients across the nation.
“I travel, on average, two or three times per month,” he said. “It doesn’t always require getting on an airplane, but I would say half the time, if not more, I do have to use air service.”
Since moving to Bayfield from Northern Illinois in March 2015, Vojta has flown eight times for business and twice for personal use. He said using Durango-La Plata County airport is much easier compared to previous airport experiences in Illinois, which required a two-hour drive, long security lines and navigating through people by the hundreds.
“Using Durango’s airport is a piece of cake,” Vojta said. “It’s a thirty-minute drive from my house. You can pull right in and parking is cheap. Security lines are usually short, so when it works, it is really great.”
However, like many other travelers who use the regional airport, Vojta has his bad experiences, too.
Due to the airport’s current state, travelers often face delays and cancellations, especially in the Winter. The airport has only one de-icing truck and lacks the proper storage for de-icing equipment and spare parts for planes. Because of the lack of storage and room for parking additional planes that might need a new part, flights are sometimes cancelled mid-air.
“I think the issue is the airport, as it currently exists, is inadequate to grow,” Vojta said. “I find during the Winter time, it is really bad. We sit a lot on the tarmac waiting to take off or waiting for de-icing.”
As a frequent flier, Vojta has come to expect the delays and plans accordingly, but even with proper planning, making connections causes concern. Unless a traveler’s final destination is Dallas, Denver or Phoenix, delays increase the degree of difficulty in making connections.
“It puts a lot of stress on making my connections,” he said. “Fortunately – knock on wood – I have not yet missed a connection through Denver or Phoenix, but I have had times where I am sprinting in the airport terminal and just barely making it.”
Obstacles such as these may be one reason more than 200,000 people opt to drive longer distances to fly from another airport. Another factor that drives passengers to international airports could be price.
“If I had to travel a lot for personal purposes, I would probably be driving to Albuquerque or Denver because Durango is very costly,” Vojta said. “When my family first flew here in January of 2015, we had some pretty reasonable airfares. But once we moved here and I started traveling – even if I try to book out in advance, which isn’t always doable with my schedule – my average cost is in the $700 range, which is pretty shocking.”
If the airport does not expand, it will not be able to provide airlines with adequate space to function in the terminal or park the larger aircraft that airlines, such as Frontier, use now. Without these advancements, the airport will not be able to attract new airlines and airfare will remain expensive without new competition.
Due to his work as a real estate appraiser, Vojta is familiar with a vast array of economies in Western United States and other tourist-driven towns similar to Durango. Successful communities with steady economic growth have often invested in air service which is a huge factor to their strong, growing economies, he said.
“Certainly, I think Durango has had a very good economic run,” he said. “But I think without making that investment there is a chance that our economic growth could slow.”
