ALAMOSA — Jon Coleman, Sr. Vice President and pilot with Denver Air Connection, addressed the Alamosa County Board of County Commissioners during a work session on Feb. 22 regarding the carrier's experience serving the airport under the federal Essential Air Service program. He said the airline will seek to serve the airport under the federal subsidy program for two to four more years.

Coleman said of serving the San Luis Valley Regional Airport in Alamosa, "We've been flying in for about a year and a half, and I think by all accounts things have been very successful." He added that the airline is based in Colorado and that gives the airline the benefit of quick responses to any maintenance issues.

"Alamosa is sort of challenging in terms of the airspeed because it is high altitude, we do fly our jets into Telluride...we have very highly skilled pilots," Coleman said Denver Air Connection now has an interline agreement with Delta Airlines as it does with United and American Airlines. This interline agreement allows passengers to book flights with Denver Air Connection to Denver and through to destinations those airlines serve. Coleman said the airline had no Alamosa flights last year that were canceled due to maintenance problems.

The Essential Air Service (EAS) program was established in 1978 to ensure that smaller communities have access to the national air transportation service and provide subsidies when necessary. Last year, the program survived a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to severely curtail the federal program.

In March 2022, Denver Air Connection submitted a bid proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation seeking $5.2 million in EAS funding to serve Alamosa for two years. The airline was awarded the funding and began the two-year service in June 2022.

During the meeting, Coleman said that in 2023 the number of "Alamosa to Denver passengers was 11,318, Denver to Alamosa, 10,634, for a total of 21,952." The subsidy per passenger per flight was about $118.

Currently, the airline provides service between Alamosa and Denver with round-trip advance fares of $198. The airline partners with United Airlines and American Airlines for connecting service worldwide. The airline provides service to 16 destinations directly.

Denver Air Connection provides service with the Embraer 145LR jets. With 20 years in operation, over 26 million flight hours, in service with 36 airlines in 26 countries. The ERJ-145 has a 50-seat capacity and a 1,550-mile range fully loaded. The jets underwent an Embraer refurbishment in the Summer of 2019 resulting in new aircraft according to the airline. The 30-passenger Dornier 328 jet also serves the Denver-Alamosa route.

Coleman told the commissioners the airline recently acquired an "almost new," ERJ- jet.

Alamosa County Commissioner Lori Laske told the Valley Courier two other carriers are interested in flying into Alamosa. Tennessee-based Contour Airlines, a regional carrier, has expressed interest. Earlier this month, SkyWest, an airline that previously served Alamosa, acquired a 25% stake in Contour. The airline uses regional jets from the Embraer ERJ family, in a 30-seat configuration.

Boutique Air, an airline that also has previously served Alamosa, has expressed interest in flying Alamosa, according to Laske.

The commissioners will recommend to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the preferred airline to serve Alamosa. The FAA will make the final decision on the airline that will serve the airport.

In other airport news, county commissioners met in executive session to discuss the proposed $1,290,780 civil penalty the Federal Aviation Administration is seeking.

"The FAA-approved Airport Certification Manual for the San Luis Valley Regional Airport requires it to have qualified firefighters present at least an hour before the first scheduled airline operation of the day and 45 minutes before all subsequent carrier operations. They also must remain on site for 15 minutes after a scheduled airline operation,” according to a statement from the FAA.

"The FAA alleges that between November 2020 and September 2021, approximately 138 scheduled air carrier flights took place when firefighters were not on-airport, according to a June 2023 statement from the administration."

Rick Breitenfeldt, with the FAA, has told the Valley Courier it sent a settlement agreement to the airport and has until March 1 to respond.

In other business during the county work session, Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson told commissioners that he opposes State Senate Bill 24-003 to allow the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hire 10 agents to enforce firearm violations and the money could be better directed to help the backlog at the CBI lab, "If they could take that money and put it in their labs that would be better...than to hire 10 more agents come into our communities and tell us we're not doing a good job with law enforcement."

Jackson also expressed his support for State House Bill 24-1128. The bill, "concerns certain actions by the general assembly related to measures intended to limit enforcement of federal immigration law." The legislation reverses HB19-1124 and HB23-1100 which, "Prohibits a law enforcement officer from detaining or arresting an individual solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer."

During the work session, the commissioners also discussed the proposal from Manish Patel for tax reductions at his proposed hotel development in downtown Alamosa. At the Jan. 24, county commissioners meeting, Patel outlined various tax reductions ranging from $200,000 to $1 million. Patel asserted the property tax revenues to be about $45,000 annually and hotel tax generated annually to be between $240,000 to $300,000.

Alamosa County Administrator Roni Wisdom said, "At this point, this gives us something to think about as background of what we need to do, and possibly at our meeting next week, we can come up with a direction for Mr. Patel so he knows what we are able to do."

The work session allowed commissioners to learn about these issues and not to vote on them.