ST. GEORGE — If you’ve noticed a drop in flights in and out of the St. George Regional Airport recently, you’re not the only one. However, it is not a cause for worry, according to airline and airport officials.
This is a regular occurrence, according to SkyWest Airlines and passenger numbers shared by St. George Regional Airport. Summer months see a dip in flights and pick up again in the fall and winter on a seasonal basis.
“SGU is a rather seasonal market,” Marissa Snow, the spokeswoman for SkyWest Airlines, said in a recent email to St. George News. “We do increase schedules for peak times such as the IronMan and other large events.”
SkyWest Airlines runs commercial flights in and out of the St. George Regional Airport — also known as SGU — through its partnerships with United, Delta and American Airlines.
Questions about the number of flights in and out of St. George posed by St. George News readers were answered during a recent visit to the regional airport.
At its height, the airport saw up to 15 flights per day, Airport Director Rich Stehmeier recently told St. George News. That dropped to six flights over the last year, yet has recently increased to 10 flights per day as routes that had been temporarily stopped come back.
Outside of the seasonal ups and downs of demand, the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the pilot shortage are among the factors Stehmeier blamed for an overall dip in available flights.
The pandemic produced disruptions in supply chains, which impacted the availability of plane parts and the delivery of new planes in general.
For example, an airline that may have ordered 10 new planes for the coming year and only had four delivered, Stehmeier said. Combine that with a lack of available pilots to fly those planes, and the overall options airline passengers previously at certain locations such as SGU drops.
As more flights become available over time, the numbers will continue to improve, Stehmeier said.
“Overall, the main driver of the largest drop in schedules was simply COVID itself, as we dropped to our lowest in recent history with one day of only one departure in May of 2020 before demand rebounded strong in fall of 2021,” Snow said.
The worst month for flights out of the airport was April 2020, with just under 3,000 flyers. The only other time it was close to that low was in September 2019, when the airport reopened after three months of runway reconstruction. That month saw 3,900 residents use the airport, which jumped to nearly 30,000 the next month.
2020 saw 180,100 people pass through the St. George Regional Airport, according to numbers shared by Stehmeier. The following year saw a great rebound with nearly 326,000 fliers, yet dipped to 274,500 fliers by the end of 2022.
As of the end of August, an estimated 183,000 people have passed through the St. George Regional Airport. With four months left in the year, Stehmeier said he expects it to continue rising.
Despite issues that have impacted airlines nationally, SkyWest, and St. George by extension, have fared better than others, Snow said.
“St. George demand over time has remained consistently strong and we have been pleased to continue enhancing what’s available to SGU travelers through dual-class service and well-timed connections through major hubs – Delta via Salt Lake City, United via Denver, and American via Phoenix and Dallas,” Snow said.
And even with the issue of the ongoing pilot shortage, SkyWest has been able to hire new captains, pilots and increase its ability to meet seasonal market demands, Snow added.
“As SkyWest’s hometown, SGU is unique in that it has maintained strong service, with up to 10 daily flights through September and October this year,” she said.
St. George continues to look at the potential for new routes in the future, Stehmeier said. Among those regularly asked for the airport’s patrons are flights to California’s Bay Area and Seattle, as well as a return of flights to Los Angeles, he said.
The addition of new fights could come with the ongoing expansion of the airport, which will increase the number and size of commercial flights the facility can handle.
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