The Sheridan County Airport will have a new flight schedule starting in 2020.
The new schedule comes after the state chose to enter into a capacity purchase agreement with air carrier SkyWest. Under the agreement, the state contracts with the air carrier to provide services at four airports in the state and matches 60 percent of the costs for the local communities participating.
The Sheridan airport had been contracting with Denver Air Connection since 2015, but the community chose to go with SkyWest starting in January.
Shawn Parker is the president of the Critical Air Service Team (CAST) that covers both Sheridan and Johnson counties. He said the switch was a business decision.
"CAST and the local community had two choices. We could enter into the capacity purchase agreement with the state where they would still fund a significant portion of the service or we could keep Denver Air Connection and go on own and have to foot the entire bill," he said.
Parker said the switch has multiple benefits. For example, the new planes will seat 50 people versus 30, and that greater capacity will mean lower ticket prices.
"We're going to have the same daily schedule, instead of having a tiered schedule that we currently have, we have a couple days where we have one flight in and one flight out. But it's going to be two flights in and out. So you're just increasing the available number of seats in and out every day from which we can drive revenue," he said.
Parker said it will also be easier to book flights through United.
SkyWest is set to take over on January 12.