Another New Mexico Airport Regains Service

A United Express CRJ-200 arriving into Chicago O’Hare. [Credit: AirlineGeeks/ Joey Gerardi]

Farmington, New Mexico, a city in the state’s northwestern corner, will be regaining air service after nearly eight years. The last time the airport had regular flights was back in 2017 with Great Lakes Airlines, which ended service just five months before the airline collapsed entirely.

The city will be receiving $850,000 from the Department of Transportation’s Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP), and it also applied for New Mexico’s Rural Air Service Enhancement grant, which provides $2.75 million to several rural airports across the state.

Risk Sharing

Farmington calls its partnership with SkyWest Airlines a “risk-sharing agreement,” in which it will pay $6.9 million to the airline over a two-year period to guarantee service and revenue to the carrier.

“We’re not subsidizing the airline; we are sharing the risk with them,” airport manager Mike Lewis told the Durango (Colorado) Herald. “They’re asking us to use the funding that we have to only break even, if the revenue from a flight falls below their cost.”

Unlike other government programs like Essential Air Service in which the airline gets the grant with few stipulations, there is an interesting note for this service. “If passenger revenue is greater than costs, no subsidy is owed for the quarter,” Lewis said.

Even with the 50-seat CRJ-200 that SkyWest and United will bring to the airport, it’s still a big step up from what the market used to receive for air service in the 2010s and will be the biggest aircraft to regularly service the airport since Frontier flew Boeing 737-200s for a brief two years from 1982 to 1984. Since then, the only aircraft with scheduled service to Farmington were small propeller aircraft such as the Beechcraft 1900, Dash-8, Embraer E120, and Saab 340, among others.

More New Mexico Service

Farmington isn’t the only city in the state that has benefited from the New Mexico Rural Air Service grant, and the state has seen more of its cities rejoin the air network than anywhere else in the country, with Farmington bringing that number up to five. The other four airports in the state that have rejoined the network are the following.

Angel Fire (KAXX), which regained service in December 2024 with Advanced Air to Albuquerque, after 38 years without scheduled flights.
Gallup (KGUP) regained service in August 2022 also with Advanced Air to Albuquerque, after being without flights from 2008-22. Advanced has since expanded flights to include Las Vegas.
Las Cruces (KLRU) regained service in January 2023, again with Advanced Air to Albuquerque, after being without service for 18 years.
Taos (KSKX) regained air service in 2018 with Taos Air, a virtual airline operated by the ski resort in the town. First, it was operated by Ultimate Air Shuttle, followed by Advanced Air. The Taos Air name was retired and now is currently served by JSX. The city was without air service from 2005-18.

The new service with SkyWest under the United Express brand will begin on May 8, 2025, with the flight occurring once a day to the airline’s Denver hub.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

airport service destination Essential Air Service New Mexico rural air service grant

Joey GerardiAuthor

Joey has always been interested in planes for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself, the first thing he did with his driver's license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. He graduated from Western Michigan University in 2022 with a B.S. in Aviation Management & Operations and a Minor in Business, and currently works for a major airline in his hometown.