How one airline leaving small Kansas airports could deal a blow to the state's rural economy

For Kansans living in Liberal, Dodge City and Hays, there’s only one airline that flies to and from the local airport. So when that airline filed paperwork this spring to terminate services, it sent shockwaves through these remote towns.
HAYS, Kansas — The COVID-19 pandemic hit air travel hard.

The number of canceled flights skyrocketed, airlines hemorrhaged billions in losses and a lack of passengers turned once-bustling airports into ghost towns.

For rural airports like the one in Hays — not bustling, but critical in their own way — the shutdowns hurt that much more.

At the height of 2020’s stay-at-home orders, just 29 people flew out of Hays Regional Airport in the entire month of April. Time and again, airport director Jamie Salter said, some planes would take off with no passengers at all.