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carriers flying into Santa Fe (United and American Airlines), In fact, for many rural western ski destinations far from
and direct flights are rare, with no direct flights at all larger airports—think Steamboat Springs, Telluride, Jackson
from Austin. Hole, Sun Valley, and others—those communities often have to
With the Texas market accounting for one-third of Taos’s guarantee numbers of seats with larger, legacy airlines to obtain
skier visits, that’s a clear win-win for everyone—the guests, frequent direct, nonstop flights into these smaller airports.
the ski area, and the state too. (See “The Texas Market,” Taos cleverly thought of a number of important touches
page 24.) In fact, the Taos Air service was made possible by that make its new air service especially enticing—and a
a partnership with the Town of Taos. In 2018 Taos Regional model for the rest of the industry, as resorts nationwide
Airport installed a new 8,600-foot crosswind runway, thanks struggle to develop service-enhancing programs to minimize
to a $28 million investment from the state aimed at boosting the hassle factor of skiing. Apart from the short travel time,
tourism to Taos and the rest of northern New Mexico. other differentiators include being able to check up to two
The airport expansion came on the heels of another pieces of luggage free of charge, including ski and snowboard
important milestone. In February 2017 Taos Ski Valley became equipment, with one boot bag and one ski or snowboard bag
the world’s first ski resort certified as a B Corporation—the treated as one piece of luggage (the only national air carrier
designation for businesses that meet the highest standards of that allows for free luggage, including skis, is Southwest
economic, social, and environmental performance. Norden Airlines). Also, for passengers not wanting to tote a lot of
says he views Taos Air as part of that commitment as the resort gear, the ski area offers complimentary demo skis and snow-
continues to invest in a sustainable economic future for Taos boards from Rossignol. A complimentary shuttle service from
and northern New Mexico. Taos Ski Valley picks them up right on the runway. And the
“Environmental and social responsibility is now an ethos flight schedule is built around what Norden describes as an
at the foundation of everything we do,” Norden says. “It’s ideal ski vacation: Passengers can fly in on Thursday morning
also why, for example, we had Native Energy [an industry and fly out on Sunday evening for a four-day weekend, for
electrical and automation integrator] come in and do a full example, or travel from Saturday to Saturday to match up
assessment of the carbon emissions this service would create with the long-running and ever-popular “Taos Ski Week,”
over the course of the winter, so that for every metric ton of a six-day lesson package that includes a two-hour lesson
carbon, we’re investing 1:1 in an organization that reduces every morning.
carbon. I’m proud to say that Taos Air is net zero carbon
B Y C OLIN B ANE neutral through the carbon offset program.”
Taos Ski Valley, 18 miles from the airport, isn’t the
only ski area benefitting: Taos Regional Airport is 32 miles Another airline now offering flights to a regional airport near a ski
from Angel Fire Resort and 36 miles from Red River Ski & resort is BLADE, a digitally powered short-distance aviation company
Summer Area. It’s also less than 10 miles from both down- headquartered in New York City and offering services throughout the
town Taos and Taos Pueblo, the Native American community NYC metropolitan area and several other states.
that is a UNESCO World Heritage site and designated The new air service between Westchester, NY, and the
National Historic Landmark. Stowe-Morrisville airport near Stowe Mountain Resort, Vt., is $745
Once plans for the runway were announced, Norden and each way, and the plane carries eight passengers. Users purchase
his team began exploring all avenues for making the most of it, seats on pre-existing flights or create their own crowdsourced flights.
including partnering with legacy airlines and leasing aircraft. Regular flights depart Friday evening from Westchester, with
“In the end we decided to start by purchasing a Dornier returning flights leaving Stowe Sunday evening.
328 jet—a 30-passenger plane—and having it fully refur-
bished inside and out to create a complete Taos-branded
experience for our guests,” he said. “The flights are oper- Norden says the new service is a game-changer for the
ated by Ultimate Jetcharters, so they take care of hiring resort and its guests from Texas, out-performing its load
pilots and flight attendants, ground service, all of that. expectations by 40 to 50 percent. In fact, the service had
We certainly could have worked with a major airline— already greatly surpassed targets for the entire season by
and may in the future once demand for these flights has mid-January.
been demonstrated—but we saw an opportunity here to “It’s been an expensive endeavor, obviously, so we’re
have more control over the experience and concept in a thrilled to see that people from the first markets we’ve identified
way that could really be a great differentiator from a guest as very important to us are really responding to the program
service standpoint.” we’ve put in place,” he said. “It’s been great for us, and it’s

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