Dear Sky West Airlines:

With this letter, we urge you to please reconsider the decision to cut the number of Pocatello to Salt Lake round trip flights per day from three to one on November 1, 2021. Further, we are also extremely concerned that the current plan is to have the one remaining flight depart at 1:15 PM and the only flight in to Pocatello will be at 6 PM.

As CEO’s and organization leaders   in the area, we feel this move will devastate our businesses and local economy. We certainly realize how challenging the past 18 months have been for airlines as our businesses and organizations have also had to deal with an extremely turbulent environment. We realize the shortage in pilots and other staff and are aware that such shortages are likely extremely difficult to deal with.

However, the Pocatello economy has been one of the bright spots throughout the pandemic as we have added jobs, brought in new companies to the area (particularly near the airport), are seeing revitalization throughout the community, and have a university that is experiencing enrollment growth. We feel drastically cutting flights out of our airport will significantly damage the recent economic growth and will lead to a downward spiral.

Further, we feel it is also essential to have the 6:30 AM flight out to SLC and a return flight back to Pocatello at 11 PM. Business travelers must be able to fly out early to catch early connections and get to their destinations and must also have the opportunity to fly back home later in the day. A mid afternoon flight is not a feasible solution for business travelers.

The CEO’s and organization leaders who have signed below wish to develop a mutually beneficial partnership with Sky West airlines so that we can all benefit. We realize you are a for profit firm and need a viable business model. However, we all need a viable service from our local airport for our own viability. It is not feasible to have to use the Idaho Falls and Salt Lake airports for our business travel needs.

We urge you to reconsider the drastic cuts to Pocatello flights, would be honored to meet with you to discuss the best path forward for our air service, and appreciate your time and consideration of our thoughts, concerns, and business needs.