{"id":14014,"date":"2026-01-13T16:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-durango-seeking-partner-for-airport-shuttle-service\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:42:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:42","slug":"city-of-durango-seeking-partner-for-airport-shuttle-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-durango-seeking-partner-for-airport-shuttle-service\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Durango seeking partner for airport shuttle service"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A snow-covered plane at the Durango-La Plata Airport Wednesday morning. Crews and airlines did not see major hickups in their operations due to the snow, other than weather delays in Denver. (Courtesy of Durango-La Plata Airport)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Many residents are sure to be familiar with the lack of a general shuttle service to and from Durango-La Plata County Airport. Some tourists might find out the hard way.<\/p>\n

Save for the Doubletree Hotel\u2019s airline-contracted shuttle service for flight crews, neither public nor private transportation are consistently available, said Mike French, city prosperity officer. In the case of a public shuttle, no such service exists at all.<\/p>\n

The city is looking to correct that. But it\u2019s proving harder than one might expect.<\/p>\n

City Council approved discretionary lodgers tax allocations for 2026 last week.<\/p>\n

The city levies a lodgers tax on hotel rooms at a rate of 5.25%, according to the city. The revenue is allocated into four categories: 55% for sustainable tourism marketing; 20% for transportation; 14% for arts and culture; and 11% to be allocated at City Council\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s discretionary fund had $892,000 to be allocated. Some of the expenditures approved by City Council on Tuesday included $16,000 for public transit for community events in Durango; a little more than $96,000 for the city\u2019s annual free fare transit summer program; and $185,000 for a minimum revenue guarantee for winter 2026-27 air service from United Airlines<\/a> were among the projects awarded tourist tax dollars.<\/p>\n

No dollars were allocated to a city-airport shuttle program, because the city cannot find a willing partner to provide it.<\/p>\n

French said he consulted with three separate hoteliers at the Holiday Inn, the Strater Hotel and the Doubletree Hotel about possible shuttle services for their patrons and the general public. In each case, the answer was, \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

The insurance liabilities, fleet requirements and the cost of staffing such a general service just aren\u2019t feasible for hotels, he said.<\/p>\n

He said the only way to determine how much such a program might cost \u2013 and how much lodgers tax funding it would require \u2013 is to issue a request for information about ideas for a public-private shuttle partnership and see who bites.<\/p>\n

Councilor Kip Koso proposed staff members study how to get a shuttle service off the ground this year. Councilor Jessika Loyer agreed, adding La Plata County should be part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Koso also objected to the approval of the $185,000 minimum revenue guarantee for United Airlines, saying traffic through DRO in October was only 2% to 3% lower than peak summer traffic in July. Passenger loads are consistently around 90% full. The funds, he said, would be better spent on something else.<\/p>\n

\"Durango-La
Durango-La Plata County Airport experienced another record-breaking year of travel in 2025, according to Tony Vicari, aviation director, who presented a review at the Dec. 2, 2025 City Council study session. (Screenshot\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The best case scenario with a minimum revenue guarantee, he said, would be the money being temporarily withheld before it becomes available again after United Airlines\u2019 winter service pilot ends. In the worst case scenario, the airline doesn\u2019t reach its profit goal and the city is out $185,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoad factor, unit revenue performance, demand growth \u2013 among other measurements \u2013 are all outstanding at the Durango airport,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no reason to pour more gas onto the fire in regard to these MRGs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loyer countered that summer tourist growth is basically maxed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know our community\u2019s reality that our summer is slam-packed,\u201d she said. \u201cOur hotels are full and we are at capacity. Our trails, our streets \u2013 everything\u2019s full.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it would be fiscally responsible and lessen the burden on local taxpayers to encourage more visitors to Durango during the winter months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Houston Winter Air Service Pilot is exactly that kind of smart, high ROA project that we should be championing,\u201d she said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a flight. It\u2019s a direct pipeline to a market that loves Durango but finds it difficult to get here in the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a minimum revenue guarantee isn\u2019t a gift to United Airlines but a safety net. If the winter service is successful, the city loses little to nothing but gains sales and lodgers tax revenue from increased tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an investment in economic resilience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

City Council unanimously approved the discretionary lodgers tax allocations.<\/p>\n

Other lodgers tax programs that received funding were:<\/p>\n

A parking program for local employees, which received $41,000.Meridian barriers, which received $115,000.A $260,000 investment into the La Plata Economic Development Alliance Child Care initiative.<\/div>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councilors approve discretionary lodgers tax projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1020,915,28,1351,1160,1526,259,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-city-council","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-headlines","tag-public-finance","tag-taxation","tag-taxation-and-budget","tag-transportation","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19281,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014\/revisions\/19281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14014"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}