A federal grant may help expand air service at the Dubuque airport. This week, it was awarded a 775,000 dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Airport director Todd Dalsing says several local partners will contribute 535,000 dollars for a total of 1.3 million, to try to entice an airline to offer flights from Dubuque to Denver.
"And those studies show that the service is lacking to the west, so that would be like to Denver. Obviously [it] will be another hub and then from there they could connect to areas like Seattle, LAX, Phoenix, [and] markets like that."
Currently, American Airlines offers three round trips between Dubuque and Chicago each day.
Dalsing says the paperwork and negotiations with airlines may take 6 months to a year before any flights could be offered to Denver and he thinks Sky West and United might be interested in serving Dubuque.
His goal is for two flights a day to Denver.
Other local public and private partners are the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, Travel Dubuque, Dubuque County as well as the City of Dubuque and the Iowa Department of Transportation.