By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
After operating without an early morning flight at the Hays Regional Airport since January 2015, SkyWest/United Express will reinstate the popular 6:40 a.m. weekday departure beginning the first week of January 2017.
The city of Hays received confirmation of the decision by SkyWest August 19.
City Manager Toby Dougherty is delighted about the change. He anticipates the schedule modification will also apply to the weekend.
“When SkyWest instituted services as United Express in Hays in August of 2014, we had a very similar schedule. The plane spent the night here, left early in the morning for Denver, a mid-day turn around, and then came back late at night. In Jan. 2015, SkyWest had to make some modifications in their fleet and they had to move the plane to a place where it could be more lucrative from a business standpoint to spend the night. They chose to move the overnight portion to another airport…the (subsequent) 10 o’clock arrival in Hays and 10:35 departure we have in the morning is about as early as they can get it when the plane doesn’t spend the night here,” Dougherty explained.
“Evidently the decision has been made that it’s more lucrative to put it here in Hays, and I believe, it’s also in hopes of increasing ridership, increasing passengers to Hays Regional Airport.”
Dougherty has the same hope.
“It’s been no secret that we at the city have been a little frustrated by the amount of passengers that have been utilizing the Hays Regional Airport,” he said.
“Back four, five and six years ago, we were approaching 10,000 annual passenger boardings with Great Lakes–a very unreliable airline flying old equipment on a somewhat unreliable schedule. And, it was an extremely expensive ticket because it was always an add-on ticket. You paid your price to get from Hays to Denver and back and then you paid the price of your ticket to somewhere else,” Dougherty pointed out.
Yet, Hays has averaged fewer annual boardings–about 8,000–the past two years with SkyWest.
“SkyWest flies top-of-the-line 50-passenger regional jets, gets to Denver International Airport in 40 minutes. Fares are very competitive with United Airlines. You book your ticket online at United.com. It’s a seamless, dynamic pricing so you’re not paying the leg to Denver and then somewhere else,” Dougherty said.
He understands the schedule can be a challenge if trying to get to some certain destinations, but believes “by-and-large, it was still a good schedule.”
After doing some research, it became apparent the number of business travelers was down more than the numbers of leisure travelers at the Hays airport. A survey of the local business community revealed the lack of an early morning flight was the number one reason for the downturn. Price was mentioned but not as significant.
All of the information was shared with SkyWest by Airport Manager Nathan Marcucci.
For months, the city had already been encouraging local and area businesses to “Fly Hays” whenever possible, sending a message of “use it or lose it.”
“We didn’t dream SkyWest was going to put the early morning flight back in January,” Dougherty said in amazement. “Evidently they see potential and have reinstituted it.”
The city continues to encourage increased ridership, especially for business use.
“I understand a little bit about the economics of what it takes to fly a jet in and out of the Hays Regional Airport and it’s extremely expensive. Even with the Essential Air Service (EAS) subsidies they’re getting from the federal government, you still depend on passengers to make this route profitable.”
During the first five months SkyWest was in Hays and providing the early morning departure, “we didn’t exactly rush back to utilize it as a flying public,” Dougherty noted.
There’s a back story to that.
“We were coming off a couple negatives–negative number one was Great Lakes. Great Lakes was a terrible airline and they did not serve our community very well, especially the last couple years they were here. They had a flight completion percentage of somewhere around 50 percent towards the end–meaning half the flights wouldn’t even go,” Dougherty recalled.
Great Lakes then discontinued its service before SkyWest began its contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, leaving Hays without commercial air passenger service for four months in 2015.
“We know that had an effect on our flying public and when SkyWest came in under United Express…we were slow to come back and they saw the (financial) possibility of moving the (overnight) plane somewhere else after five months. It was highly unlikely to me they were going to preemptively move it back.
“Evidently they see the potential. They’ve heard the feedback from some of the larger businesses–Fort Hays State University, Hays Medical Center–and they see the potential in what a morning flight could provide.”
Promotion and advertising the use of the Hays Regional Airport will continue and even ramp up, according to the city manager.
“The analogy I used in a recent staff meeting was McDonald’s McRib campaign–‘You asked for it. The McRib is back.’
“Well, Flying Public, you asked for it. The early morning flight is back and that’s what we have to promote.”
Although Dougherty personally has never found it difficult to overcome the mid-morning versus early-morning departure, he understands going some places can be difficult.
“I think some people got caught in the traffic of trying to come back to Hays where you had to be in Denver at noon or 1 p.m. (Mountain Time) in order to catch that last flight back. That’s where it could be really difficult. If you’re coming from an east coast location, it may be difficult to get out of there early enough to get to Denver to come back.
“So, the late arrival that comes with the RON–Remain Over Night–with the plane staying overnight in Hays, that late arrival is just as important to flexible schedules as the early morning departure is. They kind of go hand-in-hand.”
Part of the promotional campaign, marketed by the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau, focuses on affordability.
“When you take in account the time to drive to Wichita, Kansas City, or Denver, it can be affordable to fly out of Hays. If you’re a leisure traveler with family members, you have to consider the costs of drive time, meals, parking and maybe a hotel stay versus the additional $100 to $200 per ticket.
“If you’re flying on business–usually it’s just one person or maybe two–the business also has to value the employee’s time, the productivity, perhaps paying mileage if the employee has to drive, the expenses that come with travel, the employee being out of the office (for a longer time). Therefore the convenience becomes a lot more affordable for a business.
“It’s been the business community saying this airport is absolutely critical to our success. That’s why this latest outreach has been at the business level….we think they got a little used to driving to other airports and didn’t give Hays the full consideration they should have.”
In an email to Hays Post Thursday, City Commissioner James Meier said he’s starting his own marketing campaign.
“I think by talking all these years about ‘SkyWest’ that people are thinking about ticketing and pricing in terms of the old Great Lakes where people had to get a ticket to Denver and then a second ticket to wherever they were going. With Great Lakes it was ‘add-on pricing,’ meaning they paid a fair on United and then another fare to Great Lakes.
“This isn’t the case with SkyWest as SkyWest operates completely under the United system. Flying from Hays now is no different than flying from Wichita, Kansas City, or anywhere else there is United,” reminded Meier. “You may change planes… but it’s all one ticket because it’s all United.”
Meier said he thinks the flying public is checking prices to Denver “because that’s what they’ve always done, and then deciding the price is too high, not realizing they need to price their ticket from Hays to their final destination.”
According to Meier, all the United ticket prices he’s checked “are $350 to $450 round trip to pretty much anywhere in the U.S. from Hays.”