United [Express] Resumes PIA-DEN Mar. 30! UPDATED.

An Embraer 175 in the old colors on final approach to Chicago-O'Hare Intl Airport May 26, 2023

Central Illinois residents will soon be able to connect through Denver year-round.

United Express will resume nonstop daily service between Peoria and Denver on March 30, 2025. The last time the carrier played this market was in early 2015. 

This WEEK-TV News 25 article and video has good details. Departure to Denver will be at 0850. The return flight will arrive back here at 2050. The single-daily roundtrip will be operated on a 76-seat jet, most likely an Embraer 175 operated by SkyWest Airlines.

A burning question is what will Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines do? The former offers seasonal service between Peoria and Denver on Mondays and Fridays. The airline is offering Saturday flights on December 21 and 28, and January 4 as well. Flights cater to the local market, and mostly budget-conscious leisure travelers. So United Express' daily service might have but a minor effect on Allegiant Air's limited service. 

Frontier Airlines offers summer season nonstops four times a week between Bloomington-Normal's Central Illinois Regional Airport and Denver. Flights usually start in April or May and last to early fall. Like Allegiant Air, Frontier is an Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC). Unlike Allegiant, it offers connections through Denver to multiple points, thus widening the route's traffic base. New competition from United, however, threatens to saturate the market, increasing volume but decreasing profitability. 

There is a chance that Allegiant Air's Peoria-Denver flights, which actually cycle between Nashville, Peoria and Denver using the same aircraft, will be discontinued. Both PIA-DEN and PIA-BNA markets rate among the lowest load factors of Allegiants network. As for Frontier, the carrier can meet the competition by implementing year-round service, but I would not expect additional frequencies. 

UPDATE: I should have included historical background to Peoria's Denver connections. Ozark Air Lines apparently held Peoria-Denver route authority as early as 1966, but did not start the route, via Sioux City, until April 1, 1975. A second roundtrip was added on September 1 that year. 

Although it appears that Continental Airlines' initial bid for Peoria routes in 1973 included Denver, the airline began service on a Chicago (O'Hare)-Peoria-Kansas City-Los Angeles itinerary on February 28, 1977 with two flights in each direction. Load factors on the Peoria-Chicago segment proved disappointing and one roundtrip was dropped on January 15, 1978. The other one lasted until October 29 that year. On December 15 cut service to a single Peoria-Kansas City-Los Angeles roundtrip. 

Times were changing as Congress passed and President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act on October 24, 1978. Route and fare regulations would be phased out over the next several years. The industry moved away from point-to-point or linear multi-stop routes with interline connections toward hub-and-spoke networks emphasizing single-carrier service (where possible) from origin to destination. 

In June 1979, Denver replaced Kansas City as a stop for Peoria service. Through service (in both directions) to Los Angeles endured until the PATCO strike in early August 1981. A second Denver roundtrip, begun April 26, 1981, actually restored the Kansas City stop.

Ozark Air Lines initiated Peoria-Denver nonstops on February 1, 1977. The flight included an Indianapolis tag-on. The other Denver roundtrip usually stopped at Sioux City, though this shifted to Waterloo in 1980. After the strike that year, it appears both Denver roundtrips were nonstop and were combined with East Coast service on New York (LaGuardia)-Baltimore-Champaign-Peoria-Denver intinerary. This lasted until March 15, 1981 when St. Louis became a stop west of Peoria. The Indianapolis-Peoria-Denver roundtrip was dropped on July 1 that year. 

Back to Continental Airlines. The second-daily Denver roundtrip via Kansas City was probably dropped by February 1, 1982. The single-daily Peoria-Denver roundtrip added an Omaha stop on June 1 or before. By the September 8 schedule, a second daily Peoria-Omaha-Denver roundtrip had been added. Texas International Airlines, a Local Service Airline turned National, acquired Continental through its parent Texas Air Corporation in 1982. The full merger went into effect on October 31. Former Texas International DC-9s were deployed to Peoria routes during fall and spring.

On May 2, 1983 Continental added a daily Peoria-Indianapolis-Houston roundtrip with flights continuing to three Mexican destinations on alternate days. This service was dropped August 13 due to a mechanics' strike. Continuing labor-management conflict led to Continental Airlines to cease operations on September 23 and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Although the airline began restoring flights a few days later, Peoria service never resumed. 

United Air Lines began operating into Peoria on April 1, 1984 with Toledo-Peoria-Denver and Peoria-St. Louis-Denver itineraries. Lincoln, Nebraska replaced St. Louis as a stop mid-year. Eventually, both Peoria-Denver roundtrips stopped at Cedar Rapids and/or Moline, eventually settling on Moline. By the mid-1990s, the airline industry had changed and a shift to regional carriers on spokes to small and medium cities had become the norm. United Air Lines discontinued service to Peoria effective February 8, 1995. In its place was United Express carrier Air Wisconsin, which operated four-engine, 89-seat BAe-146 jets on the route (Like United, flights stopped at Moline save for the afternoon eastbound). 

In the early 2000s, the effects of recession, 9-11 and rising fuel prices again forced airline service cutbacks. United Air Lines itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2002. Service to Denver was discontinued on May 5, 2003. So for the first time in 19 years, Peoria had no scheduled, daily service to Denver. 

United Express resumed a single-daily Denver nonstop in 2007 but discontinued it in early 2015. On May 28, 2021 Allegiant Air began offering twice-weekly seasonal nonstops to Denver, restoring service after six years. 

- David P. Jordan