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Thanks for your Ask Trip Coach ski questions Budget Travel

29.10.09

Why is it impossible to find a cheap flight into Jackson Hole? I'll tell you why, and address a bunch of other issues too.

Among the Ask Trip Coach questions from readers , several involved requests for help getting cheap airfare into Jackson Hole, Reno, or other smaller ski-friendly airports.

Well, the numbers explain a lot about why it's so difficult to get an inexpensive flight: There are only ten daily flights into Jackson Hole, with non-stop flights offered from just seven U.S. airports. Two of Colorado's skier-friendly airports have even fewer options. Non-stops to Eagle County, near Vail and Beaver Creek, are only available from Denver and Dallas, while Aspen's airport connects directly to Denver alone. Reno-Tahoe, the closest airport to Sierra-Nevada resorts like Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, seems big by comparison, with non-stops from 16 airports. All of these snow gateways are tiny compared to Salt Lake City, a hub for Delta Airlines, which alone accounts for nearly 600 daily domestic flights into the airport that's within 45 minutes of nine resorts that are all magnets for fresh powder. The chances of getting inexpensive airfare are better if you're going to Salt Lake City or Denver simply because these big airports have more flights and more competition, especially due to the presence of promotion-crazed carriers like Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest. More often than not, travelers must make one or more connections to fly into smaller airports like Jackson Hole, and they pay a premium because there are often only one or two airlines monopolizing service and calling all the shots in terms of fares.

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