By NICK BUDD
Hays Post

At Thursday’s Hays City Commission meeting, officials continued to express frustrations surrounding SkyWest Airlines’ recent decision to change the flight schedule to accommodate the transition to an all-jet fleet. The new schedule will leave Hays without a morning flight in the month of February.

“What SkyWest has done is unfortunate and we are very angry and unhappy by it,” said Hays Mayor Henry Schwaller. “I’m ready to go to the next level and seek the advice of our United States senators, because it’s very clear we’re not going to get the service we need.”

Beginning in February, the first flight out of Hays will be at around 2 p.m. after it arrives from Denver at around 1:30 p.m. That flight will then arrive in Denver at around 2:20 p.m. Mountain time. The plane will then depart from Denver at around 3:45 p.m. MouNtain and arrive in Hays at around 6 p.m. Central for the final flight back to Denver, which will leave at around 6:30 p.m. Central.

The schedule will change again in March. After arriving in Hays at around 10:40 a.m., the first flight will load and depart at around 11 a.m. It will then depart Denver at around 3 p.m. and arrive in Hays at approximately 5 p.m. and leave Hays for a final time at around 6 p.m.

“A 10:30 flight is not helpful if one is doing business on the East Coast,” Schwaller said. “The businesses and people are not happy because it completely disrupts their access to transportation. The point of getting this airline to come here was to have access to major airports.”

Henry Schwaller on SkyWest Airlines

“I understand that they have other needs and we haven’t met their expectations that we we’re not even made aware of, but it’s unacceptable because of the millions of dollars that we and the federal government has paid to get this airline,” Schwaller said.

Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty says he will “continue to fight” for a better schedule at the airport.