For years, Cortez boosters have been fighting the image that Cortez is in the middle of nowhere. Some days, though, it can be an extremely hard place to get to, and an equally hard place to leave. In November, a quarter of the commercial flights through the local airport never got off the ground.

During November, 38 flights through Cortez were cancelled by Great Lakes Aviation, the airline contracted by United Express to provide Cortez-Denver air service. The cancellations left some travelers stranded, caused some to miss connections in Denver, and sent many scrambling to make alternate travel arrangements to get to their destinations or back home.

Ten of those cancellations were between Nov. 15 and 19, according to Cortez City Manager Hal Shepherd, whose sister was one of those whose plans had to be changed.

So far this year, 95 flights have been cancelled. Twelve of those were in February, six in April, and seven during two weeks in July (the airport was closed for half of that month for taxiway construction).

"We’ve had a lot of cancellations," confirmed Russ Machen, assistant airport manager.

And Shepherd, who serves as the airport manager, said the city had asked the Colorado congressional delegation to weigh in on its behalf.

"We want United, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and our congressmen to understand what is going on, because we just put $2.5 million in federal money in the airport for runway improvements."

PILOT SHORTAGE

The culprit is a shortage of pilots, according to industry officials. Stricter federal guidelines announced in August will require reserve pilots to be given more resting time between flights, said Dick Fontaine, vice president of marketing for Great Lakes Aviation. All airlines are scrambling to hire enough pilots to meet the regulation when it goes into effect later this month.

"The whole industry is in a hiring frenzy right now," Fontaine said. "We’re having to account for rest time differently than we have had to do in the past. That means that every airline needs more pilots, and we’re having some problems because of it."

To complicate matters, small airlines like Great Lakes often serve as training grounds for pilots, and when those pilots have acquired the needed experience, they’re eager to move up to the better pay of the bigger companies. Hiring by those carriers leaves crew vacancies on flights to places like Cortez.

"When the big airlines need pilots, they dig down into the minor leagues," said Machen. "It’s not just Cortez, and not just Great Lakes."

"Durango has the same problem," agreed travel agent John Bond of Cortez Travel. "They just have more flights. If your flight out of Durango doesn’t go, there’s another one an hour later."

But Glen Wells of Classic Affordable Travel had a different opinion. "I’ve noticed that Durango doesn’t get as many cancellations as we do," Wells said. "They’re served primarily by Air Wisconsin, and Cortez and Farmington are served by Great Lakes. When you see that, I think a finger can be pointed at the carrier (Great Lakes) rather than the airline (United Express)."

Great Lakes is holding more "training events" per month than normal to qualify pilots and get up to speed, Fontaine explained. Each takes between 45 and 60 days and involves ground school, flight simulators and air time in the aircraft before pilots are put on the schedule.

"It’s not that there is a lack of qualified applicants, we’ve had 1,000 of them, but the training backlog created to get new pilots ready to work has unfortunately forced us to cancel flights."

That training backlog could be caught up by January or February, Fontaine said, at which point the rash of cancellations should cease.

"We will see some rapid improvement here in the next four weeks," he predicted.

Meanwhile, though, the pilot shortage is real, and so are the cancellations. Some travelers have been told that mechanical problems have grounded their flights, and that is true in a certain percentage of cases. Machen said one or two flights a month might be cancelled because of mechanical concerns, and weather also affects flight schedules, but the absence of a flight crew is the primary reason for the cancellations.

Prospective passengers also suspect that the chances of a flight being cancelled can be correlated with the number of unsold seats. Airline officials say flights are not cancelled simply because they’re undersold, but when decisions must be made about which flight to assign to the available crews, ticket sales are a factor.

Fontaine said that unlike other cities served by Great Lakes, Cortez has so far been spared a permanent reduction in flights brought about by the new rules. The Essential Air Service program of the Federal Aviation Administration subsidizes 18 round-trip flights through Cortez weekly; with only 19 scheduled, nearly any reduction in that schedule would require FAA approval.

PASSENGERS’ OPTIONS

Passengers ticketed on canceled flights are rebooked on other flights or offered a refund, Fontaine assured, adding that every effort is made to contact customers 24 hours before their cancelled flight was scheduled to leave.

Wells’ advice for Great Lakes’ passengers was, "Try to have a back-up plan. Have your car gassed up." Cortez Travel encourages travelers on longer trips, especially those booked on international flights, to leave a day early to ensure they’re in Denver in time for the next leg of their trip. Both travel agencies record home and work numbers for their clients so they can inform them of cancellations announced in advance.

Although airport gate agents can reroute most travelers if a flight is cancelled, a travel agent can be a useful ally. If a flight is cancelled for mechanical or crew reasons, airlines are required to pay the additional costs required to get passengers to their destinations. That includes scheduling them on another flight — from a different airport and on a different airline if necessary — and covering lodging costs while the traveler is stranded on the ground. If a cancelled flight was fully booked, airline representatives can be left scrambling to meet passengers’ needs.

"It can be hard to get it out of them," warned Wells. "Sometimes you have to really pressure a customer service agent." He said he has written letters to help customers collect the reimbursements they were due.

Bad weather presents problems of its own, because storms halfway across the country can strand Colorado travelers even though skies here are clear. If a plane is grounded by snow in Chicago, it can’t pick up passengers in Denver on its way to Los Angeles. Because weather is considered an "act of God," though, airlines have no legal responsibility to help accommodate travelers grounded because of it. For that reason, Wells said, "They’ll try to blame it on the weather if they can."

WATCHING THE NUMBERS

The idea that fewer passengers might use the local airport is worrisome here.

"All the people who are now flying into these other airports reduce our passenger numbers here," Shepherd said, "not because the city is failing to support the airport but because of Great Lakes’ lack of scheduling.

"They are creating a reduction in numbers in Cortez, and so when United takes a look at it and sees the numbers dropping, they are going to question why. That is why we want to meet with (United) to indicate that it is not the local populace that is not flying but rather, we are being forced onto other flights because of the way it is being handled by Great Lakes."

For the same reason, local travel agents stop short of recommending that travelers book their trips through other airports.

"We like to keep the boardings here" in order to keep as many flights as possible scheduled, Bond explained. "People going to Farmington and Durango get used to that. We need to support this airport."