HOUGHTON - With weeks to go before the changeover from Mesaba Airlines to SkyWest Airlines, Houghton County and airline officials met with the public at Michigan Technological University Tuesday to update them on its progress.
SkyWest Airlines, a carrier for United Airlines, which was awarded the contract last year as the carrier at Houghton County Memorial Airport, will take over flight operations at the airport March 1. The St. George, Utah-based airline was awarded the contract through the federal Essential Air Service program.
The new flight schedule will include two flights a day to and from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The estimated flight time between Houghton and Chicago is an hour and 25 minutes, about 10 minutes shorter than the Houghton-Minneapolis flight.
The flights will leave Houghton at 6:44 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., arriving in Chicago at 7:07 a.m. and 3:08 p.m. Central time, respectively. The return flights from Chicago leave at 11:55 a.m. and 9:45 p.m. Central, returning to Houghton at 2:19 p.m. and 12:09 a.m. Eastern time.
Mike Mooney, a representative from Sixel Consulting, said the schedule had been designed to optimize connections.
Although frequent flyer miles won't transfer, United will match frequent flyer status except for 1K status, Mooney said. To get the status match, go online at united.com or consult a travel agent. United also has a three-level program for corporate travelers.
"If you're a road warrior, there are some opportunities there to travel more efficiently without some of the hassles that are associated with network travel now," he said.
Kierstin Waara of Travel Leaders in Houghton said some people have been booking the Houghton-Chicago flights on United and then using frequent flyer miles on their connecting flights through Delta.
"I've got 400,000 miles myself," Waara said. "You've just got to check your options."
The airport, Travel Leaders and Sixel Consulting are working with United and SkyWest on pricing issues. In December, United matched the existing Delta pricing except on lowest airfares. However, United didn't file any airfares to cross-lake cities, and didn't file international airfares in many markets. When eventually filed in January, many of the fares were too high, Mooney said.
East Coast and Southeast prices are almost fully competitive with Marquette pricing, Mooney said, though West Coast flights remain an issue.
"Right now, if you want to go to Vegas, you might want to think about going to Marquette, because it's going to cost you substantially more," he said.
People who had trips with a return flight after the switch were also affected. Delta's system showed Sawyer International Airport as being only 62 miles away, which made it an acceptable redirect. Other glitches popped up as well: One person was told they would have to go to Grand Rapids to fly to Europe.
"Try to talk to Delta, you get a different person every time ... they didn't understand," Airport Manager Dennis Hext said. "They didn't know where Houghton is. They didn't know where the U.P. is."
Travel Leaders, which deals with both United and Delta systems, was able to work with the fliers and iron their problems out.
Despite what people might have heard or remember about O'Hare, Mooney said, the combination of a new runway and the economic hit to the airline industry has made it more efficient.
For the first 10 months of 2009, 81.7 percent of United flights into O'Hare arrived on time, compared to 80.1 percent for Delta in Minneapolis.
United flights will fly into and out of Terminal 1 at O'Hare, Mooney said.
"At this time, and for the foreseeable future, we see Chicago being as reliable a connecting hub as Minneapolis or Detroit," he said.
Mooney said SkyWest, like Mesaba, is a well-regarded airline. SkyWest's director of operations made a recent trip to Houghton to talk about the issues regarding Houghton's winter climate.
"I think that should impress you with how they look at your winter operations," Mooney said.
Agreements with Rhinelander and Marquette are still being looked at.
Mooney said the way out of EAS is to use the local air service.
"We want SkyWest to be so successful they don't need a subsidy and are out of the program," he said. "We certainly want them to be successful enough that they want to stay."
Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com.
