(Radio Iowa) – Daily commercial air service will end at the Dubuque Regional Airport next month, leaving travelers searching for alternatives. Realtor Ann Williams tells K-C-R-G T-V she uses the service monthly for work and to visit family around Chicago. “It was just the easiest way to get from here to there and then onto my next destination with no trouble at all. I’m really going to miss it,” Williams said. January 15th will be the last day passengers can board a Denver Air Connection jet at the Dubuque Regional Airport. The city of Dubuque decided not to renew the three-million dollar contract for flights after they didn’t become profitable. Williams says said the community will suffer without the flights.

“I think that would have been a time-limited investment, and what relevant city in the world these days doesn’t have an airport?,” she says. The loss of air service will affect local institutions and families. Clarke University’s Andy Bellings said losing the flights could make it tougher to bring in new students. “We recruit a lot of students from Texas, Florida, and California and it makes it really hard for them to come here and go back home,” Bellings said. Bellings said the loss of air service will also affect his family. as his daughter attends college in New York. Without daily local air service the alternative is more travel time to airports in Cedar Rapids or Chicago.

“Chicago is six hours roundtrip, inconvenient time of day. I’m older. I don’t want to drive late at night or early in the morning,” Bellings said. The airport will continue operations with the University of Dubuque Aviation program and occasional charter flights, but the passenger terminal will remain largely empty. City leaders said they are working to find ways to make daily air service sustainable in the future.