United Airlines passengers are waiting in the boarding area for flights to Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado.
Robert Alexander | Getty Images
The latest United Airlines ski destinations will be accessible by bus.
The Chicago airline on March 11 will begin providing bus services three times a day from its hub from Denver International Airport to Breckenridge, Colorado and four times a day to Fort Collins on April 1. – will be transferred directly to the bus, provided by the fixed line, which will depart from a gate to the airport. The landline says seating will be limited due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Passengers can book tickets directly to those 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 and program planning. “In fact, they want to ski and go to all these tourist destinations.”
Denver was a relatively bright spot for carriers during the pandemic because it has a lot of outdoor activities where travelers can physically distance themselves, although Gupta said the airline has been discussing bus service for more than a year. Denver’s United service has returned to about 80 percent of 2019 traffic levels, most of the airline’s hubs.
Gupta said the idea is to capture demand for travelers visiting areas within a 100-mile radius of Denver and eliminate the stress of driving from the airport.
“We thought it would be a great market for testing,” he told CNBC. “We think it’s a very low-risk experiment.”
If successful, United could expand the service to other outdoor destinations outside of Denver or connections to its centers in San Francisco and Newark.