For five years, United Express has provided its Fort Dodge passengers with convenient flights to Chicago – O’Hare International Airport, where they can transfer to United Airlines flights to the rest of the country and the world.

Someone can board a plane at Fort Dodge Regional Airport, fly to Chicago, walk to their next gate and fly to their final destination. It’s a seamless transfer – there’s no need to retrieve suitcases and check them in again.

And Chicago is a logical place to get flights to the eastern and southern United States. But if a passenger’s destination is in the western United States, they are placed in the odd position of flying east from Fort Dodge and then flying west again. That’s not ideal.

That situation is about to change for westbound passengers.

Starting May 21, United Express will begin offering flights from Fort Dodge to Denver International Airport in Colorado.

The flights will be offered Monday through Friday. A plane from Denver will arrive in Fort Dodge in the mornings. A flight from Fort Dodge will depart for Denver in the evenings.

Fort Dodge had air service to Denver from October 2021 to April 2022.

Restoring service to Denver is an outstanding accomplishment.

We thank the airport commission and staff plus the employees of Skywest, which operates the United Express flights, for making this happen.

Now that we have Denver flights again, those of us who live in the Fort Dodge region must take advantage of them. We need to keep those Denver flights full so that the airline won’t even think about taking them away again.

The new flights offer westbound travelers lots of convenience, starting with free parking at an airport close to home. And once they get to Denver, there are seamless connections to United flights across the west and the globe.

And while we celebrate the new Denver flights, we must not forget that Chicago flights remain very important to many travelers. They will continue to enjoy free parking in Fort Dodge and seamless connections at the bigger airport.

With connections to both Chicago and Denver, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to not fly from Fort Dodge.

If we want to keep those flight connections, we need to use them.

The Messenger encourages every traveler in the area to use Fort Dodge Regional Airport for their flight needs.