Air service logs record numbers

Since United Airlines started providing air service at the Sheridan County Airport through SkyWest in January, commercial flights set records until COVID-19 restrictions were imposed.

That’s according to Airport Manager John Stopka.

Speaking at the opening of the new terminal addition earlier this week, Stopka said numbers of air passengers are slowly starting to come back up, with numbers doubling every month since April. He said numbers in July have already surpassed the June numbers, and for the last couple of weeks, air service has been running at about 65 percent load factors.

Stopka said bookings for July and the first couple of weeks of August have booked really well. He said people right now aren’t booking far in advance because they don’t know what’s happening three or four weeks or more in the future.

He said the past couple of months, Sheridan has been taking flights with Gillette because of low ridership, not only in Sheridan and Gillette but across the nation. He said since earlier this month, Sheridan has no longer taken flights with Gillette because both airports have been booking very well on their own.

Stopka said the Sheridan County Airport has in fact added a couple of flights and is now flying daily, seven days a week.

He said in August, SkyWest will add another mid-day flight in Sheridan, flying four days a week – Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.