The US Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded a two-year USD7.4 million essential air service (EAS) contract at Kearney, Nebraska to SkyWest Airlines (OO, Salt Lake City).

The contract will commence on August 1, 2018, and will run through August 31, 2020. The airline will operate 12x weekly round trips to Denver International using CRJ200 equipment for an annual subsidy of USD3,675,276.

SkyWest Airlines will operate under an interline agreement with United Airlines under the United Express brand and will offer connections to other destinations via Denver.

PenAir (Anchorage Ted Stevens) had previously served Kearney with 14x weekly departures to Denver using Saab 340B equipment under a USD7.1 million EAS contract, running through October 31, 2018. The airline filed a termination notice on August 7, 2017, after it had filed for bankruptcy. It consequently stopped the service on September 10, despite a DOT order to maintain flights until a new operator is found.

Replacement of a turboprop service with jet flights operated by SkyWest has been made possible by runway expansion at Kearney. The USD12 million project is scheduled to be completed on August 31, 2018. The currently available runway infrastructure at the Nebraskan airport does not allow jet operations.