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Steamboat Springs — The number of departures at Yampa Valley Regional Airport was down by a total of 2,500 passengers in June, July and August, compared with 2008.

However, undisclosed airline yields might prove to be the deciding factor early next year, when local officials could decide between jets or props for spring, summer and fall in 2010.

YVRA saw fewer inbound and outbound seats this summer because of the elimination of a daily jet flight to Salt Lake City, Utah. But information collected by airport officials shows that United Express jet flights departing for Denver saw greater load factors than did similar flights in the summer of 2008.

Load factors alone don't tell the story of airline revenues.

"The amount people were paying per seat was not as high this summer as last summer," said Sandy Evans Hall, executive vice president of the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association. As a result, she said, "the cost of service is expected to be higher this summer than last."

Evans Hall monitors summer airline service closely. The Chamber provides administrative services to the Local Marketing District, which brokers contracts providing minimum revenue guarantees to secure air service in the Yampa Valley.

The LMD, including representatives of the resort community, makes recommendations to Steamboat Springs City Council about how to spend two points of lodging tax committed to underwriting air service. The funds augment a larger share provided by Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. and help attract direct ski season flights from cities including Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and Minneapolis.

In addition, LMD funds underwrite the full share of summer jets operated by United contractor SkyWest Airlines, with the LMD's exposure capped at $300,000.

Members of the LMD appeared before City Council last night to update their 2010 budgeting plans.

United officials would agree to provide summer service on turboprops operated by Mesa Airlines with no need for revenue guarantees. So the community preference for the on-time reliability of jet service exposes the LMD to the risk of meeting revenue guarantees that vary with airline yields each season.

Based on early returns, Evans Hall said the LMD expects to pay the full $300,000 revenue guarantee for summer flights. Last year, it paid nothing, except for fully underwriting the Salt Lake flight.

Evans Hall said the combined performance of this summer's flights and the coming ski season flights would guide decisions about the off-ski-season funding next year.

LMD members typically hope to out-perform the conservative budget and carry as much as $750,000 forward into the new budget cycle. However, this year, they anticipate committing almost half of their $1 million reserve fund.