Contour Airlines is set to debut at Palm Springs International Airport on Monday with nonstop, daily flights to Sacramento.

There were still a few seats open on the inaugural flight, scheduled to depart PSP at 1 p.m.

Contour Airlines and the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau jointly announced the new seasonal flight at the Palm Springs airport in June, before boarding a promotional round-trip flight.

The flights will originate in Sacramento, leaving at 10:45 a.m. daily with expected arrival in Palm Springs at 12:15 p.m. and departure north at 1 p.m.

Based in Smyrna, Tenn., Contour was founded in 1982 and has service at airports in 10 states. It is billed as a low-cost airline that doesn’t charge for baggage and offers passengers complimentary snacks.

“Sacramento is an important hub for Greater Palm Springs,” said Scott White, Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau president and CEO. “Our destinations are already connected by strong business and leisure ties, so this new route restoring service to a market that has gone unserved for many years is an exciting opportunity for us.”

He added, “Today is like Christmas for a tourism entity.”

This is not the first-time nonstop service to Sacramento has been offered in Palm Springs. Alaska Air had a daily nonstop flight until about five years ago, when it was canceled due to low demand, said Al Jones, chairman of the Palm Springs International Airport Commission.

“I think the time is right,” he said to reintroduce the service. There is more business and tourism travel to and from Sacramento today than five years ago, Jones said.

In Southern California, Contour has been serving Santa Barbara Airport since August, with flights to Sacramento, Oakland and Las Vegas. Its Sacramento service began in April.

Contour started as a charter service and began offering scheduled service in April 2016.

Since then, the airline has grown to carry than 17,000 passengers per month, said Matt Chaifetz, 34, who took the helm as an equity partner in 2013. He became CEO in 2015.

Contour is a privately owned company and Chaifetz said the key to success is punctuality — but also serving the small to medium regional airports that don't have nonstop flights to key areas, such as Sacramento and Las Vegas.

Such airports have a demand for travel destinations that are maybe four to six hours driving distance and a market for people who would prefer the short flights, he said.

“I don't have a plan to grow, just for the sake of growth. Not every market is the right market for a 30-seat aircraft,” Chaifetz said. “We’re pacing ourselves.”

With the addition of Palm Springs to its route map, Contour will serve 18 destinations across the country. Contour flights are operated aboard Embraer ERJ-135 regional jets featuring 30 leather seats with 36 inches of legroom in every row.

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“Sacramento has been one of our most successful new market launches,” Chaifetz, said. “We’re thrilled to work with the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau to introduce such an exciting new destination to our network and to connect these two very important California markets.”

The Sacramento-to-Santa Barbara flights are so successful that a second daily flight will be added in September, said Cindy Nichol, Sacramento Department of Airports director, on hand to greet the promotional flight when it arrived on June 25.

“I think we have a lot of demand for this service that we can't really document," Nichol said. "I think a lot of people drive now rather than fly."

It's a six-hour drive between Palm Springs and Sacramento that she believes people will exchange for a flight that takes 1 hour, 10 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes and is reasonably priced, Nichol said.

"I'm sure this is going to be a very popular route," she said. She thinks it could expand to two flights a day in a short period, much like the Santa Barbara route.

Chaifetz said service from Palm Springs could expand to other destinations, but would not name any — though he added Las Vegas is possible.

Mayor Rob Moon, who frequently travels to Sacramento, said: “This is going to make it so much more convenient for everybody, from Indio to Yucca Valley.”

Tickets for the new service are available for purchase on Contour’s web site at contourairlines.com, by calling (888) 332-6686 and through local and online travel agencies.

Passengers are allowed one checked bag, one carry-on and one small personal item free. For each additional bag, passengers are charged $20 each way.

The airline gets mostly good reviews through online travel companies, including Trip Advisor and Yelp. Being on time, the 36 inches of leg room and overall service are well praised.

White said over the past six years, the convention agency has noted 168 group bookings from Sacramento, representing about 105,000 room nights.

But Greater Palm Springs also has lost about 180 group bookings adding up to 124,000 room nights. “A lot of that is due to no nonstop service.”

The announcement of the new service to Sacramento further supports efforts to add additional cities and increased service into Palm Springs in the 2019-20 season, White said.

In 2018, the Palm Springs airport served more than 2.3 million passengers, a 10.8 percent increase from the record 2.1 million who passed through the airport in 2017.

Desert Sun reporter Sherry Barkas covers the mid-Coachella Valley cities of La Quinta, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. She can be reached at sherry.barkas@thedesertsun.com or (760) 778-4694. Follow her on Twitter @TDSSherryBarkas