NEWS RELEASE
CHIPPEWA COUNTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
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The Chippewa County EDC, manager of Chippewa County International Airport (CIU), would like to share news received earlier this week from Skywest Airlines/Delta Connection, the air carrier that provides service to CIU.
Due to a pilot shortage within Skywest Airlines (as with most US air carriers), Skywest is drastically changing the fall 22/winter 23 schedule to and from CIU.
CIU will still have two round trips daily to both DTW & MSP, but our schedule will no longer have an early morning departure or a late night arrival.
The new schedule beginning (later morning) September 12th, 2022 will be “tagged with Alpena and is as follows:
Detroit - 8:25 a.m.
Alpena - 9:34 a.m./10:04 a.m.
Sault Ste. Marie - 10:51 a.m./11:21 a.m.
Minneapolis - 12:07 p.m.(CST)
Minneapolis - 1:25 p.m.(CST)
Sault Ste. Marie - 3:52 p.m./4:22 p.m.
Alpena - 3:52 p.m./4:22 p.m.
Detroit - 5:09 p.m./5:40 p.m. 6:50 p.m.
Some passengers who have reservations in September/October may have already received information from Delta regarding those changes. If you do not like the way Delta has changed your ticket; perhaps the direct MSP afternoon flight to get to/from your location may work instead of going through Detroit, as we gain an hour in MSP, and it has an early afternoon arrival time in MSP.
We understand this may cause inconvenience for our passengers and are disappointed in this news, but we have been told it necessary so Skywest Airlines can continue providing service to our airport. We have been told this schedule may only be until spring, and by then pilots that have completed flight training can begin flying the routes. Skywest is a valuable CIU partner and we will work with them through this short-term employment issue.
CIU is not the only airport affected; 9 other small hub airports from Minnesota to Michigan have received the same news, and their routes tagged with other airports.
For more information, or to provide a letter of support requesting nonstop well timed service return to CIU as soon as employment resources allow, please contact:
Skywest Airlines
Att: CIU scheduling/D. Belmont
444 South River Road
St. George, Utah 84790
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