The Pierre Regional Airport will soon offer flights to Minneapolis.
The new stop is thanks to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program, which gives rural airports access to commercial air service.
"We’re very excited about the USDOT’s decision,” Pierre Mayor Steve Harding said. “For the 15 years that I’ve been on the City Commission, the public has been asking for air service to Minneapolis. We’re happy we can now deliver the option.”
Denver Air Connection will provide the flights through a new two-hub air service. DAC already charters flights at the airport between Pierre and Denver.
The new contract begins June 1, but Harding said the flight schedule won’t be updated by then to include the new stop.
"We don’t yet know how many weekly flights we’ll have between Pierre and Denver or Pierre and Minneapolis," he said. "The USDOT gave us flexibility to divide up our twelve weekly round trip flights as we see fit to make them as beneficial as possible for our traveling public.”
The City of Pierre will make announcements about flight schedule changes once the details are worked out.
