City of Presidents, meet the Golden City and the City of Angels.
On Monday, Rapid City Regional Airport officials announced that starting this summer, weekly nonstop flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles would be offered each Saturday and Sunday from June 22 until Sept. 1 through United Airlines.
“Today is another historic day for Rapid City, the state of South Dakota,” Airport Executive Director Patrick Dame said from the airport’s terminal Monday morning. “The airport has been working diligently over the past three years to achieve service to California and we are here today to tell you that we have accomplished new air service not to just one but two new cities in California, two new great hubs.”
Flights from Rapid City (RAP) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will depart RAP at 2:20 p.m. and arrive at LAX at 4:29 p.m. local time. Flights from LAX will depart at 9:50 a.m. and arrive at RAP at 1:44 p.m.
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For flights to San Francisco (SFO), flights from RAP will depart at 1:45 p.m. and arrive at SFO at 3:55 p.m. local time. Flights from SFO will depart at 9:15 a.m. and arrive at RAP at 1:08 p.m.
“This is transformational for the state and local tourism,” Dame said, noting that LAX is already the seventh-most-visited airport from Rapid City. “I want to encourage our community to use the new air service and help us grow it into the future.”
The goal, Dame said, is to eventually expand the service so that flights are offered mid-week, too. Tickets for the flights have been available for purchase since Saturday, he said. Looking forward, Dame said the next goal is to try to find a market for nonstop flights to Florida.
On Monday, the airport also announced that its weekly nonstop flight to the Newark Liberty International Airport will add Sunday flights to what was previously a Saturdays-only schedule.
Those flights will also be seasonal and available from June 22 through Sept. 7. Airport officials said that makes a total of 13 nonstop flights from Rapid City's airport.