Passengers flying to Denver will have more room to move about the cabin as the Durango-La Plata County Airport welcomed its first flight from the United Airbus A319 on Sunday.
The commercial aircraft seats up to 126 passengers compared to the typical regional jet that carries 76 passengers. DRO Director of Aviation Tony Vicari said the move was made by United Airlines officials based on an increased travel demand at the airport.
United carried about 179,000 passengers at DRO in 2022, up 4% from 2021. Also, United was the market-share leader at DRO in 2022, carrying 49% of all passengers arriving and departing from Durango.
There are five to six flights between Denver and Durango daily, but only one flight will rely on the Airbus.
“As we continue to see strong demand in our market, it's been something that United has looked at for several years,” Vicari said. “They finally saw the metrics and the market really showed that it was worth giving a chance.”
Vicari said both United and American Airlines flights have had record-setting load factors during the last year. Load factor is the capacity of the plane filled with passengers.
He said both airlines have seen load factors in the 80% to 90% range. Often, 90% is considered full because airlines account for passengers who may have missed a flight and are scheduled for a later one. Historically, load factors had been in the 70% range for most flights departing from the airport.
“We are proud to be the only airline providing service from Durango to Denver,” said Matt Miller, United’s vice president for Airport Operations at Denver International Airport in a February news release. “As Colorado’s most prominent airline, this vital link gives Southwest Coloradans access to more than 150 one-stop destinations through Denver.”
Larger aircraft are more efficient for airlines because they offer more seating and decrease unit costs. According to the Aircraft Cost Calculator, if flown 650 hours per year, an airbus will cost an airline about $3.3 million per year. A regional jet would have cost about the same amount, but the airbus has greater passenger capacity.
The aircraft will mostly be used for the early morning flight to Denver, but depending on flight scheduling it may be used for later flights as well.
Vicari credits Durango’s strong economy through the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason why the area has seen an increase in visitors.
“We've seen that our market has responded really well post-pandemic and we continue to see a resilient economy here which is better than in other places,” he said. “Consequently, that demand has been really sustained.”
The airport did not need to make any changes to accommodate the aircraft. However, the larger aircraft means more passengers coming through the airport at one time which means there might be longer lines at the ticket counter or going through security.
But Vicari said airport staff can handle the increased volume. When air service through Frontier was still available at DRO, the airliner had flights that used an Airbus A320 that could seat up to 180 passengers.
He suggests that passengers arrive 90 minutes before their flight to make sure they account for any congestion issues.
The airbus is just one of the new changes coming to the Durango-La Plata County Airport. On April 25, the airport will host a formal groundbreaking for its terminal expansion plan.
The long-term plan is to replace the temporary tensile fabric tent that is used for the American Airlines terminal on the west wing of the building. Vicari said the tent covers 50% of the available square footage after the security checkpoint.
“As a temporary structure that has a finite shelf life and we're already over a decade into the life-cycle of that temporary structure,” he said. “We need to have a game plan to be able to backfill that square footage.”
tbrown@durangoherald.com
