PIERRE, (KCCR) — Pierre city officials are responding to angry public comments following the cancellation of flights to the Twin Cities due to poor ridership. Airport Commissioner Jamie Huizenga says contrary to social media comments accusing the city of setting the flights up to fail, the city and Denver Air Connection wanted Minneapolis to work…
Huizenga says the subsidy Denver Air gets for fly an Essential Air Service routes is gap funding to keep partner airlines solvent…
Huizenga says officials started the Minneapolis flights as soon as they could based on public input rather than waiting until a busier time of year…
Huizenga says they never had a number of minimum enplanements they would like to have seen in order to maintain the flights. He added that the failure of the Minneapolis, while disappointing, has not closed the door on possibly trying an eastern flight in the future.
