If you haven’t yet had the chance to use Prescott’s very own airport, you’re missing out. Conveniently and centrally located off of highway 89 and 89A, the airport is close to nearly all residence in the Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, and Williamson Valley areas. This makes it far handier for Prescott area residents to travel to California and Colorado than driving down to Phoenix and using one of their airports, which adds hours of time onto your travel, not to mention giving extra time to get through all that airport security and get to your gate.
Prescott Regional Airport recently released some facts that sum up their first six months of air service. The following are statistics from the first six months of Essential Air Service (EAS), provided by United Express, operated by SkyWest Airlines. The service began on August 29, 2018 and it flies daily to Los Angeles and Denver.
- The end of February marked the first six months of commercial air service with United Express/SkyWest Airlines.
- Typically with airlines, January and February are two of the lowest months for passenger traffic after the holidays; however, PRC hit a 63.9% Load Factor (LF), with 1,982 passengers in January and a 63.8% LF, and 1,628 passengers for February.
- Currently PRC is 6,390 passengers away from hitting 10,000 enplanements for calendar year 2019 to retain our Primary – Non-Hub status.
- Despite snow cancellations in February, PRC is still on track to hit 25,000 enplanements in 2019.
On top of that, here are some additional highlights and data for the past six months since SkyWest started service in September:
- 12,347 revenue departing passengers (average load factor of 71.47%).
- 12,241 revenue arriving passengers (average load factor of 70.92%).
- 24,588 total revenue passengers thru PRC (average load factor of 71.24%).
- Operated 686 flights (arrivals and departures) out of 698 scheduled – 98.2% completion rating (the majority of cancellations being due to weather related safety issues).
Flights for spring break were nearly full to both Los Angeles and Denver! Additionally, projections based on current booking for March-July continue to be strong.
“By all accounts, Prescott Regional Airport has continued to perform well above expectations,” said Dr. Robin Sobotta, Airport Director. “We continue to see strong numbers of enplanements (people boarding in Prescott, and deplanements, people getting off in Prescott.”
If you live in Prescott and are flying to California or Colorado, flying out from Prescott Regional Airport might be something you want to look in to. Who knows, if the airport keeps going strong, perhaps they’ll add even more destinations to and from Prescott?!
To book a flight from Prescott, please visit United’s website at www.united.com, on the United App, or by calling Reservations at 1-800-864-8331.