After taking a year off due to COVID-19, Taos Air has fired its service back up with direct nonstop flights to and from two cities in Texas and two in California.

The airplane charter service will resume flights to the following airports:

• Austin-Bergstrom International
• Dallas Love Field
• Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Los Angeles
• McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad

Service resumes on July 1. Summer flights will consist of twice weekly service from each city between July 1 through September 27.

Taos Air will also offer service for the winter 2021-22 ski season; booking for those flights will open up later this summer.

A nonstop flight takes about 3 and a half hours. There are currently regular commercial flights to Taos via American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

Taos Air's last flight was on March 15, 2020. "We took 2020 off," a spokesperson says.

Taos Air offers a private flight experience at the price of a commercial airline ticket and is considered the easiest route to the Rockies for visitors from Texas and California.

Their service first launched in 2018, out of a partnership between the Town of Taos and Taos Ski Valley, Inc., which purchased the jet.

Taos Air flights are public charters sold and operated by Advanced Air, LLC as a direct air carrier. The travel experience is pitched as being more convenient than traditional commercial flights because of the ease of parking, simplified check-in, and reduced airport congestion that comes with a boutique charter service.

Taos Air also offsets 100 percent of its carbon impact, making it the world's first carbon-neutral airline.

Joe Zvada, Director of Aviation for Taos Ski Valley, says in a statement that they've been fielding requests from customers.

"Visitors come to Taos to experience rich spiritual traditions, fine art, distinctive cuisine, and the raw, natural beauty of the landscape," Zvada says. "As travel regains momentum, we know the pleasant and sophisticated experience Taos Air offers will be the perfect way to kick-off a visit to Northern New Mexico."

Taos Ski Valley is undergoing a $300 million renaissance, investing in new amenities both on-mountain and in the base area, which include:

• The new Via Ferrata, situated at 11,500 feet in the sub-alpine ecosystem of Kachina Peak, featuring beginner through advanced climbing, a 100-foot skybridge, and a double-cable catwalk. Novice climbers can try cabled mountain travel under the supervision of a guide, and progress to vertical terrain with views of the Rio Hondo and Wheeler Peak Wilderness.
• The Green Chile Flow Trail, a lift-service mountain bike trail. From the top of Lift 4 all the way to the bottom of the Kachina Basin, the Green Chile flow track is a family-friendly 3.5-mile route with banked turns and amazing scenery.
• A new Blue Corn Trail, an intermediate mountain bike trail under construction that will gradually expand throughout the summer and fall.
• The newly renovated Williams Lake Trail, a wooded 3.7-mile intermediate trail culminating at a picturesque lake. The summit is Wheeler Peak, the highest mountain in New Mexico.

For a more passive experience, visitors can take chair-lift rides to take in the alpine scenery of the Kachina Basin.