STEAMBOAT SPRINGS —Members of the Yampa Valley Airport authority board learned Thursday night that two jet flights from Denver to Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden have been returned to the daily United Express schedule for ski season. And the board also gained some new insights into factors relating to some of the unreliability of the Denver flights on turboprops operated by Republic Airlines.
Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Diamond, who also sits on the authority board, said he had a chance to meet informally in Steamboat this summer with a United executive who oversees United’s hub in Denver and was vacationing here.
“He came from Continental (Airlines) in the merger, and when he got to Denver, he learned to his surprise that SkyWest’s operations center is totally separate from United’s in Denver,” Diamond said. “They don’t even talk.”
SkyWest will operate the two 66-passenger CR7 jet flights that will serve the Hayden airport this winter in addition to two Republic Airlines’ 74-passenger Q-400 turboprops. But it is SkyWest, which has a reputation for reliability on its own flights here, that oversees United Express flights operated by seven carriers out of Denver International Airport, according to Ski Corp. Airline Program Director Janet Fischer.
