Denver Air to offer holiday deal; SkyWest Airlines showing interest in making return to Watertown

November 13, 2023
Mike Tanner

WATERTOWN, S.D.–People planning air travel early next year will want to keep their eye out for a “holiday deal” from Watertown’s commercial airline–Denver Air Connection.

Airport Manager Rob Cyrus talked about it at Monday’s Airport Board meeting. Here’s what he told KWAT News…

More than 13,000 passengers have boarded Denver Air Connection flights out of Watertown already this year.

On a separate airport matter, the board heard from marketing consultant Martin Kammerman of Airport Strategy and Marketing.

Kammerman says he recently spoke with representatives of SkyWest Airlines and said, “they were still very interested in being a potential bidder (for Watertown air service), and from my perspective as the consultant, even if we like Denver Air Connection (DAC), it’s always good to have a backup plan, just in case something goes wrong at DAC or something changes in a way that isn’t favorable to us.”

He went on to say, “SkyWest does have some useful offerings, especially the full on codeshare relationship with United, which is superior to the interline agreement that DAC has with American and United. But at the same time, if something’s working, we don’t necessarily need to change it, so definitely we’ll be staying in touch with SkyWest, they’re pretty easy to communicate with back and forth so I don’t see any problems there.”

SkyWest terminated service in Watertown after losing the Essential Air Service (EAS) bid to Denver Air Connection in 2021.

DAC’s current EAS bid runs through May 31, 2025.