For the News-Sun
Reliability and on-time performance of commercial air service at the Lea County Regional Airport in Hobbs is setting the bar for regional airports.
During the last 12 months, HOB has outperformed all other airports across the region in terms of reliability and on-time performance. Since February 2022, HOB hasn’t experienced a single flight cancellation.
HOB has an impressive completion factor of 99 percent during the past 12 months.
In terms of on-time performance, HOB inbound and outbound flights had an on-time performance of 86 percent during the last year. The HOB on-time performance compares favorably to the performance of both Lubbock and Midland, 75 percent and 76 percent respectively.
While rising airline ticket prices have been widely reported across the country, fares into HOB have remained relatively stable during the past several months.
When purchased at least 21 days in advance, fares into HOB are now competitive, and sometimes even lower, than fares into Midland, Lubbock or Roswell.
In June, United Airlines made a few changes expected to improve operations at HOB.
The first was a change in operator from SkyWest to CommutAir. The change brings with it the return of the 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145XR, which is better suited for summer “hot-and-high” operations at HOB.
United also made a schedule changes that better align with its new operator.
The late flight into HOB will now arrive at 8:36 p.m., allowing travelers more time for connections in Houston. Correspondingly, the morning flight out of HOB will now depart at 8:14 a.m. to Houston on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; and will depart at 8:40 a.m. to Denver on Friday, Sunday and Monday. United Airlines expects the schedule to remain in place through the end of calendar year 2022.
