Flight, bus service in valley continue to expand

Additional flights from United Airlines and a second-daily bus route to Denver means residents will have more options when they make travel plans this year.

If the airlines stick to their plans, the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC) will offer at least two flights a day out of the valley year-round, even during the shoulder seasons, for the first time. This February, residents will also gain access to Bustang service twice daily to Denver. Bustang is operated by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Its “Outrider” bus service moves passengers across the Western Slope with routes that run between the mountain towns of Crested Butte, Telluride and Durango.

While the Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) is subsidizing the extra Bustang service with the help of Chaffee County, the added flights are the result of a growing passenger base. Keeping the boosted service in the spring and fall when the flow of tourists slows down will depend on full airplane seats. But Bill Tomcich, the RTA airline consultant, told the Times he believes the market will continue to support these flights in the future.

Due to strong ticket bookings, United added two daily flights into the spring schedule, as well as for April and May — all on its own dime. Looking ahead, United has also added a third daily flight from Denver for the busy summer months, from late June all the way through the third week of September.

“In years gone by, we talked about, ‘What's the ideal schedule: the midday turn versus the overnight flight?’” Tomcich said during an RTA meeting on Jan 10. “The optimum schedule is actually to have them both … Kudos to the community for stepping up and supporting the service, because that's what really makes it work.”

Following a busy holiday season at the airport, bookings are solid for the remainder of the winter with “double-digit” increases for each month, Tomcich said. United added a fourth-daily flight to Denver in February and March, in addition to the Saturday non-stop flight to Chicago that will start President’s Day weekend. This is the first time in almost a decade that GUC will offer direct flights to Chicago. It's an attempt to serve a growing number of Vail Resorts Epic Pass holders in the greater Chicago area. So far, the flights are 50% booked, Tomcich said.

This month, the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP), the organization tasked with marketing the valley to visitors, doubled its spending in markets around the country as the height of ski season approached. Executive Director John Norton said TAPP continues to “overspend” in Chicago to try and fill the new flights. The goal is to request more Chicago service from United next year.

RTA is incentivizing United with a $118,000 minimum revenue guarantee (MRG), a cost the organization has to cover if airplane seats don’t fill. Norton said TAPP requested some financial help from Vail Resorts for advertising, but the company refused.

Crested Butte Mayor and RTA board member Ian Billick asked if there was a way to improve both the local marketing and transportation organizations’ relationship with Vail Resorts. Prior to the ownership change, the ski resort has historically been a strong partner on transportation, he said. In the past, the resort owners contributed millions to subsidize airline service, as these same flights carried out-of-town skiers into the valley.

“Vail is a little bit like the dragon that sits on a big pile of gold in their cave,” Billick said. “We’ve gone from a very strong partnership with them, thinking strategically and long-term, to we can't even get them to do a little bit of advertising … It seems like they're just going to push all of the liabilities and responsibilities off onto us to advertise their business while they feed off their declining stock price. It just seems like we are fundamentally off-kilter on our relationship with the ski resort.”

It’s a relationship that has the potential to become even more strained following the weeks-long ski patrol strike at Park City Mountain Resort over the holidays. Vail was unwilling to negotiate the ski patrol union's request for higher wages, resulting in long lift lines and limited open terrain. Ski patrollers from Crested Butte, Breckenridge and Keystone (all resorts owned by Vail) were temporarily assigned to Park City. Following the strike, Vail stock prices tumbled.

Norton said TAPP, alongside County Commissioner Jonathan Houck, plans to send a letter to and request a meeting with Bill Rock, the president of Vail’s Mountain Division. Their intent is to discuss ways to “produce some return on investment” at CBMR, including an expansion into Teo 2 and possible base area improvements.

“Long-term, there has to be collaboration between [Vail and] the communities we’re in,” Billick said. “We saw this break down in Park City.”

Gaps in public transit

Last year the RTA carried just under 400,000 passengers, with ridership up over 20% over 2023. As passenger counts rise, the organization continues to discuss expansions. Within its newly adopted strategic plan, the board outlined the locations of three new “park and ride” locations: Brush Creek Road, Crested Butte South and north Gunnison. These would be similar to the Ohio Creek stop, which has a small parking area adjacent to the bus waiting area.

The park and rides, designed to increase accessibility for those who do not live close to an existing bus stop, have been added to the CDOT’s long-range plan. The Crested Butte projects could be pursued within the next three years.

During the meeting, county commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels said Joni Reynolds, the director Gunnison County Health and Human Services, shared her thoughts on how public transit could be improved to serve the residents she sees in her office. The west side of Gunnison still lacks RTA bus service, and no connectivity exists between Gunnison, Montrose and Grand Junction, Puckett Daniels said.

For those who don’t have a personal vehicle or a driver’s license, and have appointments in Montrose, the options are limited. Reynolds noted incidents where residents took the Bustang to Denver, and then from there, hopped on the bus line to Grand Junction — sometimes not until the following morning.

“It's too prohibitive,” Puckett Daniels said. “People end up really in a pinch.”

CDOT has waffled back and forth on whether to launch a Bustang line between Gunnison and Montrose for a number of years, but the service has not yet come to fruition. It was in the transportation agency’s plans until the start of Little Blue Creek Canyon construction, and then before the closure of the Blue Mesa Reservoir middle bridge last year. Puckett Daniels said the RTA will continue to advocate for the service.

While it still may be awhile before Gunnison residents can catch a bus to Montrose, twice daily Bustang service to Denver will begin on Feb. 1. The service will cost the RTA roughly $100,000 annually unless CDOT finds additional funding. Chaffee County is covering the other half of the local cost match.

RTA Executive Director Scott Truex said there is a chance CDOT decides to cover the entire cost of the service in the future. Years before the Bustang existed, the RTA subsidized a bus service from Gunnison to Denver and slotted a spot for it in the organization’s annual budget. After the first year, CDOT took over operations and later rebranded it to the present-day Bustang. Still, the board remained wary of possible state transportation budget shortfalls.

“I would be surprised if there wasn't going to be some tug of war around that with CDOT,” said county commissioner Liz Smith.

(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)