This is the week Pierre sees a second commercial airline coming into the city.
Denver Air Connection takes over the federal Essential Air Service contract providing service from Pierre to Denver on Thursday (July 1, 2021).
Current EAS provider SkyWest Airlines is staying in Pierre– at least for now.
Denver Air Connection co-founder Glen Rich says they’re coming into Pierre without any stated goals in terms of ridership, partly due to the competition they’ll face.
What does Rich think could steer passengers their way?
Last week (June 24), the city commission approved a two year lease for DAC at the Pierre Regional Airport. The lease provides DAC with administrative space within the Pierre terminal, as well as access to gate space, the baggage area and other shared space used for flight operations.
DAC also begins serving Watertown Thursday. About half DAC’s flights to Denver will be shared with Watertown. The other half will originate in Pierre.
Both DAC and SkyWest book their flights using the united.com website.
In April, the US Department of Transportation awarded DAC the EAS contract to provide commercial air service at the Pierre Regional Airport. When awarded an EAS contract, commercial airlines receive a federal subsidy to make air service reliable and affordable in remote communities like Pierre and Watertown.
(Watertown Radio contributed to this story.)
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