Nonstop air service to Reno starts Nov. 5

Alaska Airlines launches its daily nonstop service Nov. 5 from Boise Airport to Reno.

Alaska will offer one departure a day at 6:15 p.m. with a Reno arrival at 6:44 p.m. in time to catch dinner and a show.

The return flight departs Reno at 4:35 p.m. and arrives in Boise at 6:55 p.m. in time for dinner.

“Reno definitely matters,” said Bill Connors, chief executive of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce. “There are some local business that have connections down there.”

Idaho Shakespeare Festival is ecstatic to have a nonstop flight to bypass the seven-hour drive across the most desolate quadrant of the Great Basin. Some 30 administrative and production staff make the commute to stage the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, which ISF produces.

“We are so glad to have the flight back,” said Mark Hofflund, ISF’s managing director. Time is money. “Not only is flying saving us time, but it’s so much easier on the psyche and body.”

Boise has not had nonstop service to Reno since early 2012. Until now, Reno was the only larger city in the Northwest and Southwest without nonstop service from Boise.

Boise airport will have 19 nonstop destinations with the addition of Reno.

Flights from Boise go to Seattle, Spokane, Portland, Lewiston, Salt Lake and Denver in the immediate region. Boise serves all three Bay Area airports in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Down the coast, nonstop take Boise travelers to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Farther off, the only options are Minneapolis, Houston and the two airports in Chicago. Boise Airport has wooed Delta Air Lines for more than a year to bring back a nonstop to Atlanta, but service to the world’s busiest airport is not imminent.

“We continuing working on Atlanta,” airport spokesman Sean Briggs said. “We continue talking with different airlines about it.”