News

Chicago routes return to airport
By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer

RAPID CITY -- Last summer, United Airlines launched daily nonstop flights between Rapid City and Chicago during the summer tourist season. The airline wanted to see if there was enough demand to support the seasonal route.
There was. In fact, more than 90 percent of the seats were filled with passengers through the summer. In July, the route's load factor - the percentage of airplane seats occupied by passengers - was more than 95 percent.

United Airlines has revived the service for this year, and it has added two flights a day beginning June 8.

Last week, United affiliate SkyWest Airline began daily flights aboard 50-passenger regional jets between Rapid City Regional Airport and O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

The flight arrives in Rapid City at 1:15 p.m. and departs at 1:48 p.m. every day. Beginning June 8, the second daily flight will travel overnight to Rapid City. It arrives here at 7:55 p.m. and departs at 6:27 a.m., according to the schedule.

Currently, United plans to continue flights through September, then cut back to once-a-day through October - and then drop the route for the winter.

However, Mason Short, executive director of Rapid City Regional Airport, and the local Air Service Task Force have other plans. They hope to persuade United to turn its Rapid City-Chicago flight into a year-round service.

And few things are more persuasive to airlines than full airplanes and profitable service.

"If we can make more for the airline than another market, we'll keep the service. It's as simple as that," Short said.

Last year, the Air Service Task Force and the local tourism and travel industry won the seasonal Chicago route - including a coveted aircraft slot at busy O'Hare International Airport - in part by launching an independent advertising campaign in the Chicago market.

Short was unsure exactly how many of the passengers aboard last year's flights were travelers for whom Chicago was either the origination point or the destination point. A large percentage was probably using O'Hare as a connection between Rapid City and some other place, such as the Midwest, the East or Europe.

But for Black Hills tourism, it's all good.

"The world goes through Chicago," said Pete Cappa, who is co-chairman of the Air Service Task Force. He noted that O'Hare International Airport offers more flights to more cities more often than any other airport in the world.

In 2004, for example, O'Hare logged 990,957 takeoffs and landings and handled more than 75 million passengers, nearly 11 million of whom were international travelers, Cappa said.

"The Air Service Task Force and its partners, including Black Hills communities, chambers of commerce and convention and visitor bureaus, individual businesses and tourism promoters such as Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes and South Dakota Tourism, are glad to see the return of this flight to Chicago," said Katherine Kinsman, who is co-chairman of the task force with Cappa.

And even if you're not in the tourism industry, the additional flights and additional traffic offer more connections and, ultimately, lower fares, Short said.

Short said most airlines are reducing domestic aircraft capacity, which means they are running fewer, fuller planes as they struggle to absorb high fuel costs. Any routes that don't produce more profitable traffic levels will likely be curtailed or dropped.

Rapid City has not experienced the level of reduction that most destinations have. Short attributed that to greater domestic and international exposure for the Black Hills region, cultivation of relationships with airlines, and more sophisticated marketing strategies employing local, regional and state partnerships.

Contact Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com