Officials: Traffic up at Clovis airport

CLOVIS — At the Civil Aviation Board meeting on Tuesday, the increase in passenger traffic at the airport was discussed and Airport Director James Harris said the parking lot was nearly filled over the past weekend.

Passenger travel at Clovis Regional Airport is 40% higher than any data back to at least 2017, said Jon Coleman, director of business development for Denver Air Connection. The increase in the demand for passenger service started this May at the city-owned airport, located six miles east of downtown Clovis.

“The goals of Denver Air Connection and the city of Clovis are starting to become real,” Coleman said. “We’re starting to see the results from the work that’s been put in over the last one and a half years by the city, the airport board and by us.”

“We look forward to continuing to work with the city and to build Clovis into the market that we all believe it can be,” he added.

The airport has not had any jet service, at least not in recent history, until Denver Air Connection opened its passenger service in May of 2020, Coleman said. The air carrier now operates 30- and 50- passenger airplanes out of the regional airport.

Both James Harris, director of Clovis Regional Airport, and Coleman attribute part of the increase in traffic to the new Transportation Security Administration service that started operating at the airport on June 1.

“Today is the official start of TSA screening,” said Harris at the Aviation Board meeting.

Prior to this, “a bus would pull up to the plane at Denver International Airport and take the passengers to the front of the terminal where they would be dropped off with their bags” as if they had just arrived at the airport. The passengers would then wait in line to get screened before continuing on with their flight.

Now passengers can get off the plane and make their connection without the delay in travel, Coleman said. Also, the screening wait lines at Clovis are shorter than at DIA.

Clovis is a more “convenient option” to a long drive to the airports in Amarillo and Lubbock and parking is free at the Clovis airport, he said.

Harris said he attributes the increase in passenger traffic in part to the airport “starting to get noticed in the city.”

“We’re doing social media and got a new website,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t know the airport and passenger service were here.”

Coleman said DAC is doing “social media pushes as well.”

“We’re very encouraged about the increase,” Coleman said. “We see the loads are definitely up. The loads are markedly higher and there have been some full flights.”

Coleman said the interests of the city and Denver Air Connection — which began serving the city as its federally-subsidized Essential Air Services provider in May 2020 — are aligned.

“All of the airport’s operating expenses are revenue generated,” Harris said.

The passenger service is in part related to the existence of Cannon Air Force Base, Coleman said.

“The city, the state and the federal government recognize that the Air Force base needs connectivity,” he said. “The Air Force base accounts for part of the increase in the passenger numbers.”