At a gathering of local business leaders this week, Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Molly Grover had one resounding message about Dubuque’s fight for air service: It’s not over yet.

The meeting came on the heels of the announcement that daily air service will return to Dubuque Regional Airport in November when regional carrier Denver Air Connection will begin offering daily flights to and from Chicago.

It’s a definite win, Grover said, but it’s just step one.

“Air service is absolutely an economic and business imperative when it comes to talent recruitment and retention,” she said. “One flight is not enough to have sustainable air service. We know that, but you have to start somewhere.”

The passenger service, slated to start Nov. 4, will be the first regularly scheduled flights out of Dubuque since low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines made its last flight in April. It also ends the long-running drought of daily service that began with American Airlines’ 2022 departure.

Dubuque Regional Airport Director Todd Dalsing said passengers will catch the roughly 55-minute flight on an 18-row, 50-seat ERJ145 aircraft.

Denver Air has interline ticketing and baggage transfer agreements with American, United and Delta airlines, meaning passengers arriving at O’Hare can connect with flights from those carriers to other destinations without having to transfer their own luggage.

“You can book one ticket … and your luggage will follow you all the way there,” Dalsing said.

After the flights were announced, the Dubuque chamber quickly organized a series of meetings with Greater Dubuque Development Corp., at which area businesses could learn more about the new travel amenity.

The last of those meetings took place this week, where a small group of local business leaders gathered at Hotel Julien Dubuque for an informal question-and-answer session. Much of the conversation revolved around the flight times and after-flight amenities such as shuttle service and rewards.

All flights to and from Chicago will depart in the late afternoon, per online ticketing information, at a cost of $129 for a one-way ticket.

Grover acknowledged that early morning flights are the norm for business travel but said there are benefits to an afternoon takeoff. She also stressed that if the first flight performs well, there is the possibility of adding an earlier flight in the future.

“This was the best possible option out of the ones they gave us,” Grover said. “… You can work all day at your office, and you can fly out at the end of the day and still get to your destination in time to have meetings all day the next day.”

Joe Hearn, president and CEO of Dupaco Community Credit Union, said he was excited about the upcoming flights and what they might mean for Dupaco. Just this week, he said, he had a vendor fly into Chicago and drive the three hours to Dubuque for an in-person visit.

“I’m excited to tell him that next time he can just fly to Dubuque,” Hearn said. “We’ve had a lot of vendors who have been hesitant to come out (to Dubuque) because of all the time it takes to drive to and from Chicago.”

The flights also will open up opportunities to send Dupaco employees to out-of-state trainings and conferences, Hearn said, which has been more difficult since the departure of American Airlines two years ago.

The partnership with Denver Air was made possible in part by extensive lobbying by local leaders and the approval of a $2 million Small Community Air Service Development grant funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation as well as local public and private partners.

Denver Air Connection has access to that money to ensure its flights meet a minimum revenue guarantee, though GDDC Vice President of Business Services Jason White highlighted that the rate at which it depletes those funds depends on the number of people who use the airline’s services.

“If we don’t fill that plane, we burn through that revenue guarantee pretty quickly,” White said. “And that’s not the goal. The goal is to make those funds last as far as the eye can see.”

Grover doubled down on that point with area businesses this week and said the success of this new flight is the best tool the city has to secure new routes and flight times.

“Service begets service,” she said. “This is how we can show those other carriers that Dubuque is a place to be.”

Local economic development leaders will be contacting area employers over the next several weeks to further stress the importance of local-first travel policies and get feedback on what they would like to see next, Grover said.