Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr said discussions Friday with community leaders and transportation officials seem to point to Allegiant Airlines and SkyWest Airlines as the two best options for air service at Cheyenne Regional Airport.

The mayor said she met with members of the Cheyenne City Council, Laramie County Commission, Cheyenne LEADS, the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, Visit Cheyenne and the Wyoming Department of Transportation to discuss the path forward for air service following an announcement by Great Lakes Airlines that they were suspending commercial flying operations.

She said the discussions indicated "the two best options are an Allegiant twice-weekly flight to Las Vegas or a twice-daily route to Dallas/Fort Worth on Sky West Airlines."

The mayor said Allegiant service to Las Vegas from Loveland/Fort Collins drew a lot of passengers from the entire Front Range but had to be discontinued because of the runway length and the need for a control tower.

She said she believes that if the Cheyenne airport were to offer such a flight, it would attract passengers from Colorado, especially considering the congestion and cost of parking at Denver International Airport.

The other alternative under discussion, twice daily SkyWest flights to Dallas Fort Worth, would be attractive to Cheyenne's large military, oil and gas, and wind energy communities, according to the mayor.

Orr says one consensus of the discussion group was that Cheyenne needs to get a letter of intent from a carrier by June 24. That is the 90-day deadline to continue Transportation Security Administration [TSA] checkpoint services.

If the deadline is not met and those services lapse, she says it could take over six months to get them back.

More From KGAB