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Horizon Air will offer non-stop ski season flights from LA

Horizon Air will offer a non-stop, round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Bozeman on Saturdays
during ski season in a partnership with lodging businesses in Big Sky.

By KARIN RONNOW Chronicle Staff Writer

Eleven businesses have agreed to guarantee the seats will be filled — or at least paid for — in
exchange for the promise of weekly non-stop service from Southern California, according to
Dax Schieffer, public relations director for Big Sky Resort, the lead partner.

"California has become an incredibly strong market for us," Schieffer said Thursday. Those
travelers are "used to being able to fly anywhere in the country without a connection. When we
talk to our customers that come from that market, that seems to be an issue that they are always
bringing up."

The Los Angeles-Bozeman flight is good news for the entire Gallatin Valley, said Brian
Sprenger, assistant airport director at Gallatin Field, which is 45 miles north of Big Sky.

"This generates the first non-stop service from any city in Montana to any city in California, so
that’s a huge step right there," Sprenger said.

The high-tech and other businesses in the valley have "continued to express interest in
additional (flights), particularly to California," Sprenger said. "And anything that we can to do
to give us better and more service is a wonderful thing for the community. Obviously Big Sky
will benefit from it, but people in Bozeman will benefit from it, too."

The two-and-a-half-hour flight will be run on 70-seat CRJ-700 regional jets, arriving in
Bozeman at 5:35 p.m. and leaving at 6:15 p.m.

"On the whole, for the state this is wonderful," said Mary Boyle, publicity coordinator for Travel
Montana. "And it’s wonderful that the private sector is working with the airlines to promote
tourism."

The seasonal flight mimics a 1993 arrangement between Big Sky and Horizon, in which the ski
resort guaranteed seats on a weekly Seattle-Bozeman flight. Horizon has since expanded those
14 flights per year to four per day.

When Horizon made it clear it would consider testing the waters again, Big Sky Resort
approached potential partners to help shoulder the burden of filling the seats.

"Big Sky Resort is on the contract with Horizon Airlines, and then we have established separate
contracts with the partners," Schieffer said.

Those who signed on are: Moonlight Basin Ranch LP, YellowstoneClub, Big E-Z Lodge, Big
Sky Chamber of Commerce, Buck’s T-4 Lodge, East West Resorts, Lone Mountain Ranch, The
Mountain Inn, Mountain Meadows Guest Ranch and ResortQuest Big Sky.

"The first year, (Horizon will) expect that commitment. In the second year, they may or may not,
depending on the success," he said.

Big Sky Resort is owned by Boyne USA, a Michigan-based, family-owned corporation. Horizon
is a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group, Inc., a publicly held company.

Karin Ronnow is at [email protected]

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