Gunnison airport takes off

Not that many years ago, some locals didn't even consider Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport when making travel plans. Flights were few, fares were high and cancellations were so frequent that adding a five-hour drive to Denver on either end of travel was a safer and less expensive option than flying in and out of the closest airport.

When Gunnison Airport Manager Rick Lamport initiated a leakage study in 2013 to determine what percentage of possible travelers were traveling through the Gunnison Airport, he discovered that the airport was capturing only 23% of the local market for air travel. The study found that, of the 245,000 potential travelers that could have flown in and out of the Gunnison Airport, 77% were choosing to travel through Denver, Montrose or other Colorado Airports.

By 2022, the airport was handling about 39,000 enplanements a year, up from roughly 29,000 and a 2% increase over 2013.

Over the last three years, that number has nearly doubled, to about 77,000.  

Lamport credits a combination of changes, including a new terminal, new airplanes and an on-site restaurant.

But those changes started with flights being able to land in Gunnison.

“Gunnison is a challenging place for air navigation. It’s more than just a casual conversation to understand how it all works,” Lamport said.

For years, Gunnison's reliability problem had less to do with snowstorms than with wind. The airport's instrument landing system serves only one runway, guiding planes in from the west. When winds blow more than 10 miles per hour out of the west, pilots need to land from the opposite direction, coming in from the east over the I-Bar Ranch, Lamport. In daylight, they could circle around to do that. After dark, surrounded by mountains they couldn't see, landing was trickier.

"That's what people don't understand, you know, there'd be no weather at Gunnison," Lamport said. "And it was a clear sky. Yet the flight used to cancel at night time. That's because the wind was more than 10 miles an hour, and they couldn't land from the west."

Bill Tomcich, the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority Air Service Manager, had seen a solution in Sun Valley, Idaho. There, a GPS-based system called Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to improve the accuracy and availability of GPS signals allowed specially equipped planes to land far more reliably. He pushed to bring the same approach to Gunnison and Aspen, the two highest-altitude airports United Airlines serves in the country.

Gunnison became the test case.

“The fleet of airplanes that United was flying into Gunnison didn’t have satellite-based navigation,” Lamport said. “They weren’t certified for it, and neither were the pilots. Until they changed the fleet, and SkyWest came in, and they brought these new E175s. So the E175s are now satellite-based certified, and the crews are too, so they can come in from the east at any point in time. They don’t have to worry about the instrument landing system or anything like that, and at nighttime, when the winds are more than 10 knots, they can now land in Gunnison.”

On June 6, 2023, United replaced its older CRJ700 jets on the Gunnison route with satellite-certified Embraer E175s.

"That was the day that reliability started to improve, dramatically," Tomcich said. "It was measurable the first full month of operations."

Now, Lamport said, planes "can land from both directions in any weather." Only very low visibility or clouds below roughly 350 feet will keep them out.

Since late 2024, United's newest planes on the route have also carried a "hot and high" package that eases the weight limits that used to force airlines to leave passengers behind when capacity and weight limits were close. This winter, the Houston flight moves to those upgraded jets as well.

It took a couple of years for travelers to notice, Tomcich said. But once they did, "the Gunnison Airport started winning back customers, both visitors and locals alike."

Reliable flights also changed the Gunnison Airport’s relationship with the airlines. For decades, service to the Gunnison Valley depended on minimum revenue guarantees, or MRGs. Under an MRG, an airline forecasts what a route will earn, and a community entity like the RTA or other partners agree to cover the gap if revenue falls short of breaking even, up to a set cap.

It’s not only a program that takes place across mountain towns, but it began in Gunnison in the 1980s with Ralph Walton, then co-owner of Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

“Having an airline program is so important to ski resorts,” Scout Walton said of the program his father started so many years ago. “If you’re close to a hub, like Breckenridge is, then you don’t rely on airlines as much, because there’s a ton of flights coming into Denver, and they’re an hour away on a good day.”

While Walton says Gunnison had a flight from Denver, it was often limited to a few days a week. Winter destination tourism relied on charter flights, but this had its challenges.

“The charters were one way, because that’s a way we could do it ourselves—meaning all we have to do is pay the airline for the flight. But when you have scheduled service, that’s so much better, because—over a particular time frame—if you’ve got it at the right time slot, it connects to points beyond that.”

Within a year, the MRG program was being replicated at ski resorts all over the west.

“Once we sort of proved the concept, it was copied,” Walton said. “Immediately. First in Steamboat, then Vail. And then all the ski towns copied it and implemented it. And, in actuality, by sort of raising the tide for everybody, we expanded the attraction of the program for other carriers. So it really proliferated, and for a while there, there were a bunch of seats coming into Gunnison on all these different carriers.”

But in recent years, one guarantee after another has ended without a decrease in service. American's winter flights from Dallas-Fort Worth had run under an MRG for about two decades. In 2022, JSX also began nonstop Dallas Service, with a small MRG. It now flies up to 12 flights a week without a guarantee.

When American finally agreed to try summer service this year, Tomcich showed American that the Gunnison route now ranked higher in profitability than other routes it flew without guarantees. American took on the risk itself, flying daily from late June through Sept. 8.

Lamport said the flights averaged 86% full. "This flight has taken off like a rocket," he said.

This winter, American is adding a second daily Dallas flight, also at its own risk.

As flight reliability, in terms of ability to land and consistent flight service, has increased, the cost to fly in and out of Gunnison has also become more affordable.

“The airlines found that if we charge a little bit less money for passengers flying in and out of Gunnison, we might actually earn more revenue," Tomcich said.

With the major terminal renovation and expansion act funded in part by an $18 million grant from the CARES Act, the Gunnison Airport was also able to complete mechanical, electrical and security upgrades, construct a new parking lot and entrance, expand passenger holding areas, install solar support, and finally offer travelers a place to get a cup of coffee or a bite to eat on site.

Locals and visitors have both played a part in increasing usage of the Gunnison airport. "The airplanes go in both directions," Tomcich said. “Visitors wouldn't enjoy today's service without locals flying outbound, and vice versa.”

While the rising costs of fuel have made the cost of all travel more expensive, Lamport believes that the new leakage study planned for the next few years will show the airport's share of the local market continuing to increase.

"Assuming everything else just stays on course, it's all pointing in the right direction," Lamport said