November 17,2014 –
United Airlines plans to fly all jets in and out of San Luis Obispo over the next year says airport manager Kevin Bumen.“United confirmed that to us this past week” says Bumen, who attended a flight conference in Alabama last week hosted by their consultant group – Sixel.
United currently flies 30 seat Brasilia (Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia) twin turboprops to both LA and San Francisco daily and would likely replace them with 50 seat Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ) expects Bumen although they could fly 70,78 or 90 seat planes as well. American (US Air) flies the CJR 200 series as well as the larger 86 seat CRJ 900 daily to Phoenix from SLO now.
“We are not sure how fast they can make the change “says Bumen but says United is talking with them over the next week about the schedule.
Bumen met with both United and Alaska airlines at the Montgomery air conference in hopes of possible daily flights to Denver through United and Alaska Airlines or a partner flying to Seattle starting up next year. “There is still no decision on those options.”
Bumen says the Denver option they have been pursuing for a few years looks more likely based on airlines pulling out of regular flights to Denver from Fresno, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara and Monterey recently.
“That means there are fewer seats in the market” improving chances United will make the decision to start up SLO to Denver scheduled flights.
Meanwhile more passengers are flying out of SLO with traffic up about 13% this year.
Next year could be a big one for the SLO airport now applying for a $20 million federal grant to construct a $30 million new passenger terminal that could be built next year.