Scheduled air service to return to Salina

Salina Airport Authority officials said Thursday that scheduled air service will return beginning April 1.

That’s when Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Great Lakes Airlines will begin operating 12 roundtrip flights a week from Salina to Denver on a 30-seat Embraer EMB-120 turboprop.

The announcement comes about a month after SeaPort Airlines abruptly ended its nonstop service from Salina Regional Airport to Kansas City International Airport. SeaPort had provided scheduled air service on a nine-seat turboprop to Salina since April 2012, through an Essential Air Service contract with the federal Transportation Department.

“SeaPort Airlines, but for the fact they ceased operations, would have been continuing to fly (to Salina) up to April 1,” Salina Airport Authority executive director Tim Rogers said Thursday.

Last week, Portland, Ore.-based SeaPort filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Great Lakes was one of three airlines competing for the new, two-year Essential Air Service contract in Salina. The EAS program provides funding to airlines serving small airports on money-losing routes.

“The community was in the process of working with the U.S. DOT on a new contract and Great Lakes had submitted a proposal, and was the community’s preference,” Rogers said.

According to a Transportation Department document, Great Lakes will receive an annual EAS subsidy of nearly $2 million to operate service from Salina to Denver.

Great Lakes has a code-share agreement with United Airlines, which operates a hub at Denver International Airport and has more than 180 connecting flights from there, according to a Salina Airport Authority news release Thursday.

Great Lakes briefly provided service from Wichita Eisenhower National Airport to Denver between November 2004 and March 2005 as a code-share partner with Frontier Airlines, which later ended its Wichita to Denver service in November 2012.

Great Lakes also provides service to Denver from Dodge City and Liberal.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Scheduled air service to return to Salina."