SkyWest Airlines plans to end service between St. Cloud and Chicago on April 6 unless state and local officials come up with a way to make the flights economically feasible.
The plan to end service was disclosed during a conference call Wednesday among airline officials, Gov. Mark Dayton and St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis.
SkyWest has operated United Express flights twice daily between St. Cloud and Chicago since May. When service started, it was agreed that load factor on the flights needed to be more than 70 percent to 75 percent to operate without a $1.75 million public subsidy scheduled to end in early 2015, Kleis said.
Kleis said that passenger load factors started out around 20 percent when service launched in May. They reached about 60 percent in August when external factors, including a fire at the Aurora, Ill., air traffic control center in September that led to thousands of flight cancellations nationwide, prevented the St. Cloud flights from reaching the target levels.
Despite SkyWest's intent to end service, Kleis believes the air service is viable.
"We're very comfortable the market can sustain service, we've done our market analysis," Kleis said. "It is a matter of reliability and a matter of getting people to change patterns."
"We can easily sustain flights more than twice daily," Kleis added.
On the Wednesday conference call, Kleis said that Dayton pledged to find a long-term solution and SkyWest promised to continue service if a long-term solution can be put in place. Dayton's office on Wednesday referred questions to St. Cloud officials.
