United Airlines in the coming days is likely to temporarily cut service between Santa Fe Regional Airport and Denver as part of a nationwide reconfiguration required to receive some $5 billion in federal bailout money.

United expects to reduce its nationwide capacity to 10 percent of its originally planned capacity for May, United CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby wrote in a message to employees released Wednesday.

To get a share of the $50 billion in federal CARES Act money set aside for airlines, an airline has to agree to maintain at least minimal service on all of its routes — or seek an exemption from the U.S. Department of Transportation for specific routes.

Santa Fe is one of those exemptions, airport manager Mark Baca said. “Since we are so close to Albuquerque, they might grant the exemption,” Baca said.

United already has reduced the number of departures from Santa Fe to Denver since the start of March to one flight a day from three, the 7:10 a.m. departure, Baca said.

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter [if the route is temporarily canceled],” he said. “This morning, two passengers got on to Denver.”

The conditions of the federal funding call for airlines to restore service to routes cut, likely in July.

The Santa Fe-Denver route had an 85 percent load factor until March, which Baca described as “tremendous.”

Stuart C. Kirk frequently speaks with airline executives as executive director of the Northern New Mexico Air Alliance, which promotes economic development in Santa Fe, Taos and Los Alamos by working to enhance the use of Santa Fe Regional Airport.

“[United] said it’s a great route,” Kirk said of the Santa Fe-to-Denver flight. “They were considering adding a fourth flight. The sum of that information is United likes Santa Fe, and when things change, we’ll get that service back.”

Baca said American Airlines had not yet filed for exemptions for its Santa Fe-to-Dallas and Phoenix routes by Thursday morning. But he said the five daily departures to Dallas have been cut to two since the start of March, and the two departures to Phoenix were cut to one.

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