Members of the Elko City Council, including Mayor Reece Keener; Elko County commissioners, and Assemblyman Bert Gurr were on hand Friday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially kick off Sky Priority.

“I’d like to thank our elected officials for showing up today,” Keener said. “They understand just how important commercial air service is here in northeastern Nevada.”

City Manager Jan Baum said she and Airport Manager Jim Foster had been working with the Delta regional air carrier and on the formation of the Flight Alliance for Northeastern Nevada that will promote commercial air service to Elko.

The new service retires the former CRJ-200, a 50-seat passenger plane that departed from Elko for the final time Friday morning.

In its place is the CRJ-900, a 76-seat aircraft that includes first-class and business seating with amenities such as larger overhead luggage space and Wi-Fi.

Foster explained the upgraded aircraft is part of SkyWest’s return to offering overnight flights, which resumed in September and fly passengers in and out of Elko to the Delta hub based at the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Currently, The New SLC Airport is in Phase 3 of its approximately $5 billion renovation project that began in 2020. It includes a new terminal, two concourses, a parking garage, dozens of shops and restaurants and 22 gates.

The new gates allow Elko passengers to make their connecting flights without being bused in to the terminals.

“The aircraft will be going right to the gates. So for our passengers, that means connecting times will be much shorter. You’re going to be right there,” Foster explained.

Making a comeback

Air service in and out of Elko took a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, when flight service was reduced dramatically across the country, taking a toll on smaller, regional airports.

In response, the City of Elko contracted the consulting group, Airplanners, to explore options for commercial flights with other air carriers. The organization suggested the city form a nonprofit Air Alliance that would bring business leaders, community organizations and local government together with the goal of promoting air travel to the area.

The Flight Alliance for Northeastern Nevada supports a minimum revenue guarantee for flight service between Elko and SkyWest Airlines and has been funded by the city. In June, Elko County’s Board of Commissioners voted to join the alliance, providing $500,000 to the alliance and gaining a seat on the board of directors.

The alliance has a “vast catchment area” that will serve the City of Elko and Elko, Lander, Eureka and White Pine counties, Foster said.

The formation of the Flight Alliance is also a work in progress as “we’ve never had anything like this before,” he added.

Foster said anyone in the community is invited to join the board of directors and provide whatever they can to the organization.

“There is a funding part of it, but it’s also in-kind services as well. If there’s a marketing person that’s very good at that, then that can help offset those costs,” he explained.

“It’s bringing the community together for a common goal, and that’s retain air service and obtain additional air services, if that’s possible.”

Noting that SkyWest has been a faithful partner with the Elko Airport for many years, Foster said the city “wants to keep them here as long as we can because of that partnership. It spans decades and it’s important for us to keep that relationship at the foremost of everything we do.”

Foster said so far, finding new air carriers to fly out of Elko “is a work in progress,” largely due to changes in the airline industry in the past three years, but that the Flight Alliance could make a difference.

“I’ve met with other providers before, and it’s not that they don’t want to come, but we need to have the backing of it,” he said. “One of the things with the Air Alliance, is we are going to have a community organization that will help us with the backing and provide that data to other service providers.”

“The ultimate goal is to connect with the three major economic hubs in the state of Nevada, and that’s Reno, Las Vegas and Elko,” Foster continued. “That’s what I would like to see for our future and the future for the community’s air service as well.”

Before 2019, Elko Airport reported 19,000 customers, but after SkyWest reduced flights to one per day, booked flights took a sharp decrease.

However, since the return of overnight flights in September, “our load numbers have started to substantially increase,” Foster said. “We’ve seen some big increases with that.”

He predicted with the new amenities offered to first-class and business travelers, “we’re hoping to see those numbers increase as well. Now that we’ve got our overnight flight back, we’re looking to the future. We’re very, very hopeful, and we’re very, very happy.”

$1 million federal grant for Elko Regional Airport

On Thursday, it was announced that Elko Regional Airport was the recipient of $1 million from the Airport Infrastructure Grant Program backed by U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.

The grant was through an FAA improvement program that allocated funds to commercial and other airports, Foster said, which will be used for infrastructure at the Elko terminal, a building that is more than two decades old.

“We need to rebuild our commercial terminal ramp, which is our number one construction project, and replacing our sidewalks around the terminal as well” Foster explained. “It’s already been allocated toward that.”

Foster added that any federal funding through the Airport Infrastructure Grant “cannot be used for the hiring of personnel.”