Earlier this month, the US Department of Transportation announced it had chosen Denver Air to take over the Essential Air Service contracts for Pierre and Watertown come July 1, with current carrier SkyWest– flying as United Express– providing service through June.
City officials from both Pierre and Watertown have said they were surprised by the change in carrier and hope USDOT will reconsider its decision and allow SkyWest to continue providing commercial air service to both towns.
Thief River Falls, Minnesota, airport manager Joe Hedrick encourages both towns to give Denver Air Connection a chance and calls their service “rock solid.”
Hedrick says customer satisfaction with Denver Air Connection has been very high.
Hedrick’s advice to Pierre and Watertown officials who are leery about Denver Air Connection?
If the USDOT decision stands, Denver Air Connection and its subsidiary, Key Lime Airlines, want their launch date for service to Pierre and Watertown to begin July 1.
Denver Air will provide 12 weekly flights from Pierre to Denver. Six of those flights will be shared with Watertown. Watertown will get non-stop jet service to Chicago, along with the shared flights to Denver via Pierre.
(Watertown Radio contributed to this news story.)
Comments