Passenger air service resumed this week in Thief River Falls.
Great Lakes Aviation started service Tuesday with a Beech 1900 aircraft that has been reconfigured to handle up to nine passengers, according to Joe Hedrick, manager of Thief River Falls Regional Airport.
The airline is offering two daily round trips between Thief River Falls and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Thief River Falls, a city of about 9,000 located about 60 miles northeast of Grand Forks, had been without passenger airline service since January, when Great Lakes stopped serving several Northern Plains cities, including Thief River Falls, as well as Devils Lake and Jamestown. The airline blamed pilot shortages as the result of new Federal Aviation Administration rules governing the number of flight hours required by first captains, or co-pilots, before they receive certification.
Devils Lake and Jamestown were without air service until early summer, when SkyWest Airlines, in cooperation with United Airlines, started daily jet passenger service between Devils Lake, Jamestown and Denver.
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While the initial flight carried just two paying customers, Hedrick expects the service to grow.
“Great Lakes had some reliability problems in the past,” he said. “As the company shows some improvement in reliability, we expect more people will use it.”
He said passengers booking tickets four weeks in advance can get round-trip fares for less than $200.
“That’s lower than Grand Forks,” he said.
Normal fares - those booked less than 30 days in advance - are about $175 to $200 each way.
Here are the departure and arrival times, seven days per week:
- 8:30 a.m. departure.
- 12:50 p.m. arrival.
- 1:05 p.m. departure.
- 7:05 p.m. arrival.
In the meantime, Thief River Falls officials continue to pursue other potential airlines to serve the region, according to Hedrick. They met earlier this week with SkyWest authorities.
Great Lakes’ current Essential Air Service contract with Thief River Falls expires at the end of May 2016.
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“We’re just keeping the lines of communication open,” he said. “When that contract comes up, we hope to see more bidders than just Great Lakes.”
For more information, or to book a flight from Thief River Falls, go to the Great Lakes website, www.onetravel.com
