United Airlines passengers wait in the boarding area for their flights at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado.
Robert Alexander | Getty Images
United Airlines’ latest ski destinations will be accessible by bus.
The Chicago-based airline on March 11 will begin offering bus service three times a day from its Denver International Airport hub to Breckenridge, Colorado and four times a day to Fort Collins on April 1. Checked suitcases – and skis – will be transferred directly to the bus, provided by Fixo, which will depart from an airport gate. The landline says that seating capacity will be limited because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Travelers can book tickets directly to these destinations and transfer to the Denver bus service after their flights.
Travelers “don’t just go to Denver,” said Ankit Gupta, United’s vice president of network planning and programming. “They really want to ski and go to all these tourist destinations.”
Denver has been a relatively bright spot for carriers during the pandemic, as it has many outdoor activities where travelers can physically distance themselves, although Gupta said the airline has been discussing bus service for more than a year. United’s service in Denver recovered about 80% of 2019 traffic levels, most of the airline’s hubs.
Gupta said the idea is to capture the demand from travelers visiting areas within a 100-mile radius of Denver and eliminate the stress of driving from the airport.
“We think it would be a great test market,” he told CNBC. “We think it is a very low-risk experiment.”
If successful, United can expand the service to other outdoor destinations outside of Denver or connections to downtown San Francisco and Newark.