“The community has been starved for air service, which we lost in 2017. This was the last time we had a commercial service.” Recognizing at the time that one of the top priorities for the airport was to do what is necessary to resume commercial service, Lewis explains that through his efforts starting in 2018, the airport had set a tentative date to start commercial service: October 15th, 2020. Pandemic-induced slowdowns in national passenger demand and flight numbers did, however, put a temporary wrench in this initial timeline. “I had been monitoring the number of people that were screened by the TSA every day in the US. TSA was screening between 2.2 and 2.7 million. However, by April 9th, 2020, they were screening only 87,000 people. That is how bad COVID was to the airline industry,” Lewis recalls. The airline partner that was set to make its first flight that month, SkyWest Airlines, mutually agreed with the airport management that a wait-and-see approach would be beneficial to increase the odds of success. Lewis had applied for a small Community Air Service Development Program grant through the FAA in 2018, and despite being awarded funding, he chose to hold off and launch commercial service under better market conditions, rather than attempting a service during the pandemic and then facing the distinct possibility of having to look for additional funding if things were to go south for the commercial launch. “We waited and were in constant contact with SkyWest, and finally, the opportunity within their operation showed itself. SkyWest worked with United Airlines and got the okay to go ahead with starting service,” Lewis recounts. In December of 2024 our market research indicated that the time was right to make an effort to restart 181 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 08 FOUR CORNERS REGIONAL AIRPORT
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