Early-morning flight to Salt Lake City set to return to Pocatello Airport

POCATELLO – The Gate City's airport will once again offer a flight for early morning travelers.

On Wednesday, the city announced that the Pocatello Regional Airport would soon offer a near-daily early morning flight to Salt Lake City. The first of these flights will depart on Oct. 2 at 6:04 a.m.

"We're very excited (to have this) flight back in the morning," said airport manager Alan Evans. "It's the flight that is most needed for our community to be able to get out and travel."

Starting in October, Delta will rearrange its schedule, allowing the airport to offer this early morning flight and a flight later in the day. On some low-traffic days, Evans said the airport will have one departing flight.

Evans estimated that the last time the airport lost its early morning flight was about a year ago, and he said Delta didn't give the airport a reason for the change.

"We have very little input, if any at all," Evans said. "It's a decision that they make, depending on bookings and profitability and things like that. So at that time, they elected to take that flight away."

As outlined in the city's news release, the early-morning flight is important for people traveling for business or leisure, providing more convenience and flexibility in their schedules.

"We've had a lot of people who requested that (the flight return)," Evans said.

Evans said that Delta turned this route back over to SkyWest, which is a regional airline that operates flights on behalf of major carriers. He said SkyWest wanted to pick this route up because "they know that it's profitable. They know they can make money, and they know how this works in Pocatello."

"As we spoke with SkyWest, they knew that this is a flight that needed to come back to this community to be successful," Evans said.

And for Pocatello to keep the flight, Evans said, travelers would have to use it.

"We really need to support (the flight) in order to keep it. The airlines make adjustments to their schedules (where) they see need, and as long as we're using it, filling seats, it will remain. But we need to use it," Evans said.

Additionally, Evans said that there have been adjustments made to fares, and that they would be "a little more competitive with what you would see out of Idaho Falls."

"It may surprise people as they start looking, they may find a fare that actually is cheaper than driving to Salt Lake City to get on an aircraft," Evans said.

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