Kearney City Council recommends air provider change to Denver Air Connection

KEARNEY, NE — The Kearney City Council is ready to move on from SkyWest.

The council voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend accepting a bid from Denver Air Connection to become the city’s next essential air service carrier. The change comes after SkyWest issued a termination of service letter to 31 cities, including Kearney, citing a pilot shortage.

City Manager Mike Morgan led the bid process and says reliability and certainty were pluses for Denver Air Connection.

“I think the certainty of the proposal, the 50-passenger versus potential smaller number of seats down the road,” Morgan said.

Meanwhile, officials say SkyWest has projected uncertainty. The company says it might rescind the termination letter and transition to Part 135, which is a different level of service than Kearney has hosted before. It’s enough to frustrate Mayor Stan Clouse.

“I am so disgusted with SkyWest right now. I just don’t get it," Clouse said. "They’re not shooting straight with us, if they even know what they’re going to do. In the meantime, we got a community, we got flying public that need some answers and some certainty. Well, we have no certainty.”

The termination comes as air travel popularity grows in Kearney. 78 percent of all seats were filled on the airport’s flights to Denver in April. Kearney registered over 25,000 enplanements last year, which is 10 percent of the airport’s total over 27 years. The recent success has been under SkyWest’s watch.

“We were pleased with the service we had. We’re disappointed with respect to what SkyWest has communicated to us," Clouse said. "They’re an outstanding company and that’s been proven. They’ve been reliable. But moving forward we will work tirelessly to promote and work with Denver Air Connection.”

But it’s not a done deal yet. Kearney’s air service is funded through federal government subsidies and the change must be approved by the Department of Transportation. Morgan doesn’t have an official timeline, but guessed service won’t change over until at least September.

The city will lose its flight to Chicago regardless of the next air carrier.