SkyWest Jet To Serve Jamestown Airport

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s congressional delegation says contracts have been awarded so SkyWest Airlines can fly to Devils Lake and Jamestown.

Great Lakes Airlines is pulling out of Jamestown and Devils Lake Starting February 1, 2014.

Senators Heidi Heitkamp (HYT’-kamp) and John Hoeven and Representative Kevin Cramer say the Essential Air Service contracts are for flights to Denver.

Jamestown Regional Airport Authority Jim Boyd and Jamestown Regional Airport Manager Matt Leitner said with SkyWest combining the Devils Lake and Jamestown Regional airports together that means two roundtrip flights daily, although that may not occur for four months.

Town leaders in both cities earlier endorsed a switch to SkyWest to provide federally subsidized air service.

Great Lakes provides service on turboprop planes, while SkyWest flies jets.

The DOT order selecting SkyWest Airlines’ bid says the airline will provide EAS to Devils Lake for $3.22 million annually and to Jamestown for $3.12 million annually. SkyWest Airlines will provide 11 nonstop roundtrip flights on a 50-seat jet airplane per week between Devils Lake and Jamestown airports to Denver International Airport. The contract is from April 1 to June 30, 2016.

Earlier this week Great Lakes Airlines, announced it would suspend service on Saturday to Devils Lake and Jamestown airports and four others in Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan due to difficulties in finding enough qualified first officers, or co-pilots, to provide full flight crews. Changes in Federal Aviation Administration rules on the minimum number of flight hours a co-pilot must have to be part of a flight crew on commercial passenger flights have impacted Great Lakes Airlines’ ability to hire enough co-pilots.

On Friday’s Wayne Byers show on CSi Cable 2, Jamestown Regional Airport Manager said the planned SkyWest schedule has flights Monday through Friday departing Jamestown at 7-a.m. to Denver, and afternoon flight arriving in Jamestown at 2-p.m., arriving in Denver at 3-p.m. Also an evening Jamestown arrival at 8:45 -p.m.

He said there will be a Saturday morning Jamestown departure, and a Sunday afternoon flight.