Flights to Houston add by United

It’s going to be easier for Texans to get to Aspen this winter.From Jan. 4 to April 2, United Airlines will be flying out of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport daily at 9:18 a.m., with a scheduled arrival time in Aspen of 11:08 a.m.A return flight will leave Aspen each day at 2:35 p.m. and land in Houston at 6:05 p.m.The new flights to Houston go on sale today and are the latest addition to a growing list of daily flights that United plans to operate out of Aspen this winter, including four daily flights from Chicago, three from Los Angeles and two from San Francisco. There also will be 11 daily flights to Denver.

All the United flights to Aspen will be operated by SkyWest Airlines using CRJ700 jets.The Houston flights to Aspen will allow for good connections to other United flights from Florida and Latin America, said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, who works closely with airlines serving Aspen.We are enjoying the best service in terms of frequency, quality, quantity from United that we ever have, said Mike Kaplan, CEO of Aspen Skiing Co. during a speech Thursday as part of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association’s luncheon on top of Aspen Mountain.Aspen matters to United Airlines, said Tom O’Toole, a senior vice president and the chief marketing officer for United Airlines, who spoke at the luncheon on Thursday. Adding air service more service, more places is the tangible, practical evidence of the commitment of United Airlines to Aspen.O’Toole also said United was actively evaluating adding service to Aspen from other major markets going forward.And he added that United is now a very healthy, very positive, very confident airline that is busy planning for its proposed merger with Continental Airlines.

Kaplan said since he joined SkiCo in 1993, air-service carriers and levels to Aspen have fluctuated dramatically through the years.We’ve gone through all kinds of different emotions about it,Kaplan said. It started with Continental pulling out. We had Aspen Mountain Air in, Aspen Mountain Air out. Northwest Airlines direct service . Northwest Airlines doesn’t exist anymore.Kaplan said the one real constant has been United Airlines.Also flying to Aspen this winter is Frontier Airlines, which announced in July it was leaving the local market and then announced last month that it was going to fly here this winter after all.Frontier plans to operate one flight per day between Aspen and Denver from Oct. 1 through Nov. 17, then go to two flights per day from Nov. 18 through Dec. 15, and finally move to four flights per day for the ski season, which ends at Aspen Highlands on April 24.Frontier has not committed to an Aspen flight schedule beyond the end of April.