SkyWest Airlines to continue to provide service from North Platte to Denver

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - North Platte’s airport manager is optimistic about the future of essential air service in North Platte.

SkyWest Airlines submitted an application to continue operating out of North Platte, but on a smaller scale. The airline is proposing to operate under SkyWest Charter with 30 seats instead of the current 50 seats.

North Platte is one of 25 communities that SkyWest intends to serve under Part 135, which is a certificate required by the Federal Aviation Administration for a company to operate as a non-scheduled air charter carrier.

“When we look at the average boarding coming in to North Platte with our 50 passenger aircraft that we’ve had the past four years, we were operating on a 60 percent load factor on average for the whole year,” said airport manager Sam Seafeldt. “So essentially we are taking our 50 seat aircraft and having 30 seats. We still technically have enough seats annually on average to serve North Platte based on our past boardings as well as our forecasted boardings for the next few years.”

SkyWest will provide 14-round trips per week for one month starting July 12. The open comment period is open through July 8.