Passenger air service from Peoria to Denver resumes
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<p align="justify">PEORIA
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<p align="justify"><font face="Nimrod MT" size="1"> - More than four years since discontinuing daily flights from the Greater Peoria Regional Airport to Denver, the western route has returned.</font><font size="1">
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<p align="center">Dave Haney can be reached at (309) 686-3181 or dhaney@pjstar.com.
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<p align="justify">United Airlines' commuter affiliate began non-stop air passenger service Friday morning to the Mile High City without a seat to spare, said Airport Director Ken Spirito.
<p align="justify">"I think it shows the market was always here to support this service, there's been a lot of demand for Denver," said Spirito, noting that since becoming the Peoria airport director 18 months ago, the Peoria-to-Denver service was the single most requested. "That was the number one destination people wanted. They kept asking 'when are we going to get Denver back?'"
<p align="justify">SkyWest Airlines will operate 50-passenger jet service, departing Peoria daily at 8:25 a.m. and arriving in Denver at 9:40 a.m. The flight will then depart Denver at 6:35 p.m. and arrive in the River City at 9:36 p.m.
<p align="justify">Spirito said the flight leaving Peoria today is scheduled to carry 47 passengers. "Those are pretty strong numbers for just bringing the service on," he said.
<p align="justify">The Peoria-to-Denver route represents a return of service that was ended more than four years ago.
<p align="justify">United suspended the Peoria airport's two daily flights to Denver in May 2003, eliminating the only direct connection to the West at the time; initially calling it a hiatus. The then-bankrupt airline said the move was part of a 12 percent nationwide rollback of its schedule to save money, adding that cuts were related to the war in Iraq and the SARS outbreak, to a lesser degree.
<p align="justify">The Denver service was expected to resume a month later in mid-June, but it was never reinstated.
<p align="justify">The returned route, however, comes about six weeks on the heals of the airport seeing returned air passenger service to Detroit, which also was lost in 2003.
<p align="justify">Even more destinations are scheduled to come on line.
<p align="justify">Beginning Oct. 27, Allegiant Air will launch its new Peoria-to-Phoenix-Mesa route, followed by returning service to Orlando/Sanford on Nov. 16, and starting Dec. 13 will add direct flights to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
<p align="justify">With those additional routes, the Peoria Airport will have 11 possible direct destinations, twice what was available last year.