Mammoth Lakes Tourism has been touting new winter flights from Orange County and San Diego, and it became official Tuesday.
Mammoth Mountain issued the following press release:
Mammoth Lakes – Beginning this winter, San Diego and Orange County residents will have easy access to world-class skiing and snowboarding thanks to United Airlines’ new non-stop service to Mammoth Yosemite Airport. United is also expanding service from San Francisco International Airport to Mammoth Lakes with a second flight from Friday – Monday.
The new flights will depart daily throughout the winter from San Diego and four days per week from Orange County (Friday – Monday). In addition, air service to and from San Francisco now includes additional Friday – Monday flight service to complement the daily flight service already in existence.
United Express regional partner SkyWest Airlines will operate the flights using 66-seat CRJ700 regional jets which include six first-class and 60 economy seats per plane. The first flights of the season are scheduled to depart Thursday, December 15, 2011 from San Francisco and San Diego and Friday, December 16, 2011 from Orange County.
The service from the two new markets of San Diego and Orange County has been long-awaited by Mammoth’s many customers in these areas.
“The new service will allow fans of Mammoth in San Diego and Orange County to spend less time in their car and more time on the slopes with the ability to get to Mammoth Mountain in about an hour,” said Howard Pickett, Chief Marketing Officer of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. “The additional flight from San Francisco will greatly benefit out-of-state visitors by providing an additional connection for even easier access to Mammoth through United’s San Francisco hub.”
Mammoth Yosemite Airport is located just 15 minutes from Mammoth Lakes, home of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area as well as a large number of hotels to suit all tastes and budgets and a large variety of restaurants. Mammoth Yosemite Airport also receives year-round flights from Los Angeles and winter seasonal flights from San Jose through Alaska Airlines.
For more information about the new flights or to reserve a seat, call 1-800-UNITED1 or visit www.united.com. For more information about Mammoth Mountain, visit http://www.mammothmountain.com/
###
About Mammoth Mountain
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is the leading four-season mountain resort in California. With 1.3 million annual skier visits, Mammoth Mountain is currently the third most frequented ski resort in the United States. The company owns and operates a variety of resort businesses including recreation, hospitality, real estate development, food and beverage and retail.
Specific businesses owned and operated by Mammoth Mountain include Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, June Mountain, Tamarack Lodge and Resort, Mammoth Snowmobile Adventures, Mammoth Mountain Bike Park and the Mammoth Mountain Inn. Mammoth Mountain also operates Juniper Springs Resort, the Village Lodge and Sierra Star Golf Course in Mammoth Lakes, California. For more information on Mammoth Mountain, visit MammothMountain.com or call 800.MAMMOTH.
###
About United Airlines
United Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL), operates an average of 3,332 daily flights on United and United Express to 238 domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.
With key global air rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America, United is a founding member of Star Alliance, which overall offers 21,000 daily flights to 1,160 airports in 181 countries. United Continental Holdings, Inc. became the holding company for both United and Continental upon close of the merger transaction. The two airlines will operate separately as they begin to integrate key customer services, marketing activities and airport processes. For more company information, go to united.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook.
Discover more from Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News - The Community's News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Boy oh boy – that is just great that an airport in Mono County, subsidised in part by Mono County property owners, is providing tourist dollars to businesses in Bishop. So – are the Inyo County taxpayers covering their share of the bill?
why don’t they redirect flights during bad weather to the Bishop Airport instead of sending them all the way back to the originating airport?
I’m not an accountant so I have a little trouble reading the town’s budget documents on line. But it looks to me like the revenue for 2009-2010 was 10 million dollars less than 2008-2009 resulting in a $5,000,000 deficit.
Sales tax revenue was up about $150,000 from ’08-’09 but the airport costs the town $2,500,000 — the interest on debt is around $250,000.
Now if the airport is such a great boon to our economy, wouldn’t there be an increase in revenue instead of a decrease? And is an increase of $150,000 in sales tax worth $2,500,000?
Somebody take a look and tell me why I am misinterpreting the most recent budget documents.
http://www.ci.mammoth-lakes.ca.us/documents/Finance/Other%20Financial%20Documents/2010%20Annual%20Financial%20Report.PDF
Here we go again! 40 million and thousands of dollars a day in interest isn’t enough taxpayer subsidy to keep this airport viable.
One winter with poor snow and these planes like the carpet baggers before them, will go away too.
The Mountain Corporates are slowly destroying the attraction for their core customers. The price point has made other out of state ski venues packages very competitive.
The Town blight is visible from most main thoroughfares. This alone will not attract the higher income customers that the business interest seek . The customer experience doesn’t meet the standards or expectations of the upper income customers.
I predict a slow decline in revenues based on the declining economy. The middle class disposable income is strained to the breaking point . These are very people that provided the revenue to improve the mountain and town but are now being priced out. The number of skier visits will drop accordingly.
This airport can’t support its self without subsidies and never will deliver the customer base to justify the investment.
It is what it is. Just a matter of time before this town goes under. The failure of our town council to accept the reality that the airport based on investment required versus visitor dollars it attracts, its a failure.
Press releases blowing smoke doesn’t change the fact we’re being hoodwinked!
Ken, At this early stage of air service, I am not sure if the numbers would present a true picture of the impact that the air service has (or will have) relative to MMSA. You are obviously not a business owner in Mammoth or you would be singing a different tune. The more people that come to the area, the more goods and services are purchased- end of story. Also, I would like to reiterate that it is not only skiers that are booking flights. In addition to other locals that I know that have traveled in and out of the area via air service, I personally have flown in officials for one of my businesses that would not have come to the area if not for the air service to Mammoth.
I do have a question, what is a shmoo?
Google L’il Abner if you wish to understand shmoos.
Lots of pretty words. Lots of tap dancing. Lots of smoke and mirrors. Lots of hand waving. All the people I see around town going in and out of businesses — HAVE CARS!!!!
Show me the numbers.
Who cares what the people are doing when they fly in? Every adult passenger that flys in from out of the area represents money to the local economy… money that is badly needed. I am thrilled that more flights are being offered. It is good for Mammoth and it is good for Bishop. Additionally, it is really convenient and I know many people (up and down 395) that have flown rather than driven to their destination.
Yes, the Tourism Mantra — People equal Money. I’d rather be a person myself rather than a Shmoo.
And the implication is that these are people who wouldn’t be here if there was no air service which is a completely unproven and unsupported argument. There is no data to prove that assertion.
I’d like to see the actual skier days from MMSA each year for the last 20 years and see if the difference in that number could be correlated with air service. Maybe you are right. Show me the numbers.
A BIG thanks to all the taxpayers
Go TEAM Go
Let’s see…Mammoth lakes in winter? Low IFR, icing, High MEAs, cross winds? How many flight diversions shall we see… Suckers
Tony….AND like some have felt ever since this “airport” was allowed to open up…How long before,due to some of the things you mentioned,will it be before there is a big-time crash and burn.
You know, all these flights are basically charter flights given all the subsidies that are given to the airlines involved. And why do we the people have to pay for MMSA’s charter flights for them to fly in potential customers for their property developments?
They keep the new releases focused on the idea that these flights are flying in skiers — it’s really to sell real estate.
It’s something like: Look you can live in San Diego and have a “second home” (translation: buy into a fractional ownership condominium hotel (translation: timeshare)) up in Mammoth and you can fly in for the weekends — when your “second home” is not being rented.
Mid December ?? 🙁 Wish the flights would start around Thanksgiving !
This is GREAT NEWS for the Eastern Sierra!
Quick, Rusty (Arnold) you better head back to Washington D.C. with your hand out again. Your problem with the Mammoth Yosemite Airport is not going away. The terminal will be getting more crowded with all your out of town guests. They are coming to spend their money at your resort. You must find some help. God knows you won’t spend any of your own money to fix the problem.