Crested Butte comes back for more flights

Brief by Allen Best

Transportation – September 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Although other ski resorts in Colorado smiled through last winter, Crested Butte took it on the chin.

The difficulty was partly reflected in the direct flight program. American Airlines lost $765,000 on its flights, mostly from Texas cities, and the local transportation authority covered $500,000 of the loss.

Still, Crested Butte is coming back again next season for more of the same, but with more mid-week shuttles from Denver on United.

Kent Meyers, of Airplanners, who assembled direct flight programs for both Vail and Steamboat during decades past, is in charge of Crested Butte’s program. He suggested that Crested Butte could go after another market in the future, but it must be prepared for it to take time. One year, Vail Resorts paid out $3.2 million in subsidies, he noted.

Next summer, Crested Butte expects to get flights from Denver on the new Frontier regional jets. So do Jackson Hole, Aspen, Vail and a good many other resorts in the Rocky Mountains.