{"id":24110,"date":"2025-01-07T13:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/is-skywest-air-service-coming-to-farmington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:48:19","slug":"is-skywest-air-service-coming-to-farmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/is-skywest-air-service-coming-to-farmington\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SkyWest air service coming to Farmington?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The newly paved Runway 5 at Farmington's Four Corners Regional Airport with tower and terminal in the background. (Debra Mayeux\/Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Farmington City Council unanimously voted to award a contract to SkyWest Airlines to provide commercial air service at the Four Corners Regional Airport in Farmington.<\/p>\n

The contract, which Mayor Nate Duckett said is \u201ccontingent upon grant funds,\u201d was awarded after a 24-minute meeting Tuesday in which councilors met in a closed session for discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkyWest appreciates the opportunity to be a part of the Farmington community, and we look forward to providing reliable, convenient United Express flights to Denver,\u201d said Cody Thomas, managing director of market development at SkyWest Airlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmington passengers will enjoy access to United\u2019s global route network, a seamless travel process, and a comfortable flight experience onboard our 50-passenger jets \u2013 all with the convenience of flying local,\u201d Thomas said, adding the airline anticipates starting service this summer.<\/p>\n

Farmington Chief Procurement Officer Jennifer Rowland stated a request for proposal for air service was opened Dec. 30, and SkyWest Airlines provided the sole response.<\/p>\n

The Tri-City Record<\/em> made an Inspection of Public Records request on Jan. 6 for a copy of SkyWest\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in process, and I can confirm we will not be getting that to you today (Jan. 7),\u201d City Clerk Andrea Jones said told the Tri-City Record<\/em> after the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkyWest\u2019s proposal is to provide daily United Express flights to Denver onboard the 50-seat CRJ200 aircraft,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cFlights would be available for purchase on united.com.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal \u201cis deemed to be advantageous and in the best interest of the city,\u201d Rowland said during the meeting when councilors returned to open session.<\/p>\n

Airport Manager Mike Lewis, City Manager Rob Mayes and Duckett have been in negotiations with SkyWest since 2019, when the St. George, Utah-based airline considered providing air service to Farmington.<\/p>\n

However, Lewis said in previous reports that COVID-19 put a pause on earlier plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we regularly evaluate markets across the country, Farmington approached us some time ago and we have had conversations over a few years,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

He added that several factors went into SkyWest considering Farmington as a place to provide service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a variety of factors we look at when considering service in a new market, including market demand, operating resources, and United and SkyWest network needs,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are closer than we have ever been,\u201d Mayes said during the meeting, adding that the contract award \u201cis a huge incremental step, not a monumental step.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is because the city will continue to work with SkyWest through the application process to secure grant funds from the New Mexico Department of Transportation\u2019s Rural Air Service Enhancement Grant program.<\/p>\n

The grant program which was created under New Mexico Statute 64-6-3, provides funds for \u201cnew air routes or expanded air routes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to be eligible for funding, the city needs to have a minimum population of 20,000 people who live within a 50-mile radius of the airport and the aircraft being used \u201cshall have a passenger capacity of not more than one hundred persons,\u201d the statute states.<\/p>\n

The city is able to apply for up to $2.75 million per year and must provide a 10% match, according to the statute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we anticipate strong demand for this new service, we can\u2019t stress enough how important it is for people to utilize it,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen over time that once a community enjoys reliable air service, the demand continues to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working with the community to help make that happen at Four Corners Regional Airport,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duckett said the city \u201cwill continue to work with SkyWest,\u201d and he is \u201cexcited they responded the RFP to bring commercial air service back to our area.\u201d<\/p>\n

SkyWest employs 14,427 people and partners \u201cwith United, Delta, American and Alaska Airlines, carrying 38.6 million passengers in 2023,\u201d according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

The airline has an operating fleet of 484 aircraft with hubs at Chicago O\u2019Hare International and in Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis\/St. Paul, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle, the website states.<\/p>\n

The publicly traded company announced a 2024 third-quarter profit of \u201cpretax income of $116 million, net income of $90 million, or $2.16 per diluted share,\u201d according to an Oct. 31 news release in which CEO Chip Childs stated the company continues to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ability to organically grow the number of available captains for the first three quarters of 2024 has opened up incremental growth vectors for us,\u201d Childs said in the release. \u201cWe are making significant progress in recapturing underserved markets, increasing fleet utilization and quickly placing new aircraft deliveries into service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The airline also in August 2024 was \u201cnamed one of America\u2019s Best Midsize Companies by Time Magazine and Statista,\u201d according to a news release from the company that also stated it \u201cwas named one of America\u2019s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity and America\u2019s Greatest Workplaces for Women by Newsweek.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council votes to approve proposal from Utah-based airlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24110","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=24110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78403,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24110\/revisions\/78403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24110"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}