CASPER — The lone daily Delta Airlines flight from Casper to Salt Lake City via SkyWest is counting down to its final trip, set for Dec. 3 in the middle of the busy holiday travel season.
The Delta Airlines website shows an afternoon flight available to Salt Lake City on Dec. 3, but none Dec. 4 or after that stating that it’s “not offered.”
A Delta Airlines spokesperson deferred comment to its contract carrier, SkyWest, which did not immediately return calls and an email seeking comment.
But the message is clear — Delta Airlines will no longer offer its one daily flight between Casper and Salt Lake City.
For Casper’s Beau Johnston, an engineer and regional vice president for a Colorado-based company, it’s not good news.
He often flies in and out of Casper, sometimes more than once a week, using the Delta connection to meet staff and customers throughout the West.
“Saturday afternoon I received an email notification from Delta that my flights out of Casper for December had been canceled and I need to call and talk to a Delta representative,” he said. “It’s going to impact me fairly severely. I rely on Delta for making my flights. Seemingly most times my flights on United are either canceled or postponed.”
The airline decision follows the Natrona County commissioner’s decision in June to stop providing nearly $1.3 million in minimum revenue guarantee payments for the SkyWest flight. The Natrona County Airport Board had recommended that move.
Commissioners at the time cited the “long-term viability” and “value proposition” of the flight as reasons for dropping the revenue guarantee payment.
Airport Impact
Casper/Natrona Airport Manager Glenn Januska said Monday that he’s still not sure how the final departure of Delta would affect operations and finances at the airport.
“The reason we don’t know is that if everybody who was going to use Delta shifted to United, we would not lose any passengers,” he said. “If shifting to United meant that United needed to bring in an additional flight, then it really would not have an impact on the airport from that standpoint.”
Januska said the bottom line depends on what the passengers are going to do. He said the hope would be local passengers would still want to use the services available at the airport.
United now has six flights a day to Denver, but the Delta flight is the only direct from Casper to Salt Lake City. Januska said he has had some conversations with United about the potential for increased capacity.
For the last Delta flight, the Delta website shows a 3:25 p.m. departure from Casper to Salt Lake City on Dec. 3. That follows a 1:40 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. flight from Salt Lake City to Casper for that day. That afternoon schedule, according to website, will be for the month of November through the last flight.
The flight schedule posted at the airport for Monday shows the early morning 5:35 a.m. departure from Casper and 10:36 p.m. return that has been the schedule for several months. Those times are effective through Oct. 31.
Januska said he had no information about why the schedule was shifting for November.
Casper Mayor Steve Cathey said he hasn’t yet heard from local residents about the flight loss, but was aware that the flight was ending Dec. 3. The city budgeted money from the final MRG payment but those were never spent due to the county’s decision.
“Basically, we had no choice. The (airport) board was not going to send the application request to the county and send it forward to the state. We (were) kind of out of it so to speak,” he said. “It’s going to make the commute from Salt Lake City to here much more difficult. That’s kind of the way it is. The MRG should not be part of Delta’s bigger business plan.”
He said by switching from their mid-morning and late afternoon flight months ago to the early morning departure and late-night return, Delta’s demands on SkyWest reduced ridership.
“They have brought this upon themselves,” he said.
75% Full Flights
Johnston said while the early morning flight and late-night return was not ideal, he made it work for his schedule.
He said characterized ridership on the flights as “hit or miss,” but said in the past year on most flights on Mondays, the 5:35 a.m. departure was typically about 75% full, as were times he flew home on Thursdays or Fridays.
With the loss of the flight, Johnston said he will have to take one of the United flights to Denver early “to make sure” he’s not impacted by United scheduling issues. Johnston said he knows others who often take his same flight Mondays and return Fridays who will also be impacted.
One concern for Johnston is being able to redeem all the perks he has accumulated on Delta flights. And he’s reflecting on the fact that will be just one airline serving the city.
“Prior to the pandemic and the Salt Lake airport going under construction there were at least two flights a day on Delta to Casper, and at one point when we first moved to Casper 12 years ago there was even a flight to Minneapolis,” he said.
Januska said the airport has had ongoing conversations with airlines that make the most sense in the market. He has no information about a new carrier.
“Literally, what happens in the past when an airline is going to announce service is that they let me know on a Monday and they announce service on a Wednesday,” he said. “We know about it just about the time it is announced.”
The minimum revenue guarantee for the Delta Connection flight with SkyWest started in November 2021, Januska said.
Calls to Natrona County Commission Chairman Peter Nicolaysen, Advance Casper and the Casper Area Chamber of Commerce were not immediately returned.
In June, Nicolaysen said his understanding of the Delta Connection flight was that the airport board looked at the size and type of aircraft not being cost effective, not even “breaking even,” and that there were no plans for that to change. He said ticket prices were another issue.
“You look at that and you think, why is that twice as much as the trip to Denver?” he said.
Commissioner Steven Freel said at the time that the county “bent over backwards” trying to keep the airline flying into the area.
“Unfortunately, we get to a point that you’ve got to stop the bleeding, and if we end up losing something we end up losing it,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
