By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
“This has been our best year ever to date and we are going to far exceed our expectations.”
Enplanements on United Express at the Hays Regional Airport are up considerably this year, according to Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty.
In fact, July was the best month on record for airport boardings and total boardings so far in 2019 are also at a record high.
For years, the Hays benchmark boardings number has been 10,000 passengers per year. Reaching that number qualifies the airport for grant monies from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We’re going to have to modify that benchmark,” Dougherty said, noting every month of enplanements this year has exceeded those of 2018.
Dougherty includes himself in those numbers, having recently flown twice from Hays to Florida and also to New York to visit family.
“Ridership is good. The flights are pretty full going out,” Dougherty confirmed.
“Between Hays and Salina, we’re packing that airplane, which is good. Full seats mean revenue for the carriers and that means they want to keep doing business here.”
Utilization of the direct flight to Chicago is increasing.
“We were a little slow to adapt to that flight. I think Chicago is just such an unknown quantity for the Hays Regional Airport flying public.
When Dougherty and his wife traveled to New York, they flew into Denver and then Syracuse, New York, on a direct flight.
“But coming back, it was easier to come through Chicago,” he said.
“Everybody understands the Denver airport – the layout, the schedule, the terminal. O’Hare is a lot different airport. It was a good experience. I had no problem with it. It’s just different than what people are used to with that Denver outlet.”
Boardings at the Hays Regional Airport are “demonstrating that a lot of people are realizing Chicago is another venue, especially if you’re going east or if you’re coming back from the east. So, those boardings for the Chicago flight are slowly increasing.”
Dougherty attributes the overall increased ridership to schedule and consistency. “We have pretty prime schedules.”
The first weekday flight out of Hays was adjusted Sept. 1, moving back an hour to 8:03 a.m. from about 7 a.m.
“That still gets you to the big bank of flights in Denver and you can make it pretty much anywhere the same day.”
Dougherty believes the morning flight out, a mid-day turnaround with a swing-through to Chicago, and the late night flight coming back to Hays, is a schedule attractive to both business and pleasure travelers.
“It puts most of the United States in a situation where you can easily get there in one day and you can easily get back in one day. In many cases you can get there and get back that afternoon.”
When Dougherty flew to Syracuse, they left on the morning flight and arrived at 1:30 p.m. local time. Coming back through Chicago, they left Syracuse in the morning and arrived in Hays by 1:30 p.m.
“That’s a pretty timely schedule to leave central New York and arrive back in Hays in the early afternoon.”
Passengers using the Hays Regional Airport has always been more heavily skewed toward business travelers.
Still, Dougherty encourages people to check flyhays.com and use the True Cost Calculator when planning any type of trip.
“Our flights are relatively affordable when you look at comparing flying directly out of Kansas City or Wichita or Denver.
“We are extremely competitive and extremely affordable especially when it’s just one person traveling.
“It’s rare to find an instance out of Hays where it’s cheaper to drive somewhere and then fly. By the time you figure in time, gasoline, the possibility of an overnight stay, and parking, it is rarely cheaper than flying out of Hays.”
If you’re flying a family of four, however, Dougherty acknowledges it’s sometimes more expensive to fly out of Hays.
Still, he says, “when I fly out of Hays, I see a lot of people who are heading out on vacation.”