- Come to Alliance, Nebraska
and you can see Carhenge. Oh, it's not meant to be this cold. Why is it so cold? Well, good morning from the Gaylord Hotel here in Denver, Colorado. And it's actually really nice. It's a proper luxury resort. There's like snow tubing and
ice skating and all sorts. And what's more, the airport is literally just over there. Today, we are leaving the
Gaylord Hotel in Denver and heading to the least
used airport in the whole of the mainland US. As airport hotels go, the
Gaylord is a pretty decent one. I can actually see me bringing Mitch here for a winter getaway later in the year. I mean, this is just the lobby and they've even got a
full size train in here. Denver Airport is absolutely huge. Just the drive in from the perimeter fence to the terminal building,
it's over five miles and it takes 10 minutes to drive. So the least used airport in the lower 48 is a place called Alliance in Nebraska which is about an hour
long flight from here. To get there, we have to take a ride with an airline called
Denver Air Connection. On board a Swearingen Metroliner, they are very rare. Here in the US certainly
it's the only chance you're going to get to
ride on a Metroliner. - Okay, where are you flying today? - Alliance. - Okay, perfect. - I'm feeling slightly
underdressed for Nebraska. - It's going to be cold - Yeah. - Okay, this is where I take your bag. Do you have any weapons or any - No. No, weapons, no.
- Thank you. Boarding pass gate A64, we start boarding at 10:25. - Perfect. Thank you very much, have a great day. I was surprised at just how
busy Denver airport was. This is hands down the busiest airport I've seen in a very long time. The security line was
over 40 minutes long. Once I finally got through TSA, though, I was able to get on the little train to take me across to the gates. - Please keep clear and hold on for departure
to all eight gates. - Yup, the little tune on
the train was really cute. - Hold on, please. We are approaching the station. Please, watch your step. - All right, now is the
point where I realize I need to come get something
warm to wear in Nebraska because while it is minus 18 here, it's minus 30 in Nebraska
right now in centigrade. This is sort of what I'm wearing. Yeah, let's get something warm to wear. That's got to be it,
let's head to the gate. Yeah. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Have a good flight.
- Thank you very much. See you later. My ride up to Alliance today,
there was this uber cool Swearingen Metroliner delivered in 1997 to Hainan Airlines of China before going on to Bearskin
Airlines in Canada in 2000 and finally onto Key Lime
Air later the same year. Sorry, geeking out. Hey there, how are you? - How's it going? - Yeah, good, how are you? - Good and well. I can just have you sit behind
that first seat right there, anywhere, it's fine. - Yep, perfect, thank you. - Yep, welcome aboard.
- Thank you. Once onboard the cabin's in
a one-on-one configuration with staggered rows,
meaning alternate rows are missing a seat. This means for loads of leg room. I was joined on this flight
by fellow aviation YouTuber, Zach from NYC Plane Spotting. I'll pop a link to Zach's
channel on the screen now. All right, onboard Denver
Air Connection Metroliner. Hmm, the leg room's not bad, is it? I'm on board with Zach. - How're you doing? - He's also flying to Alliance
to fly on a Metroliner. He's come all the way from New Jersey to take a ride on it and so this is cool. - Guys, just a quick seatbelt check. Can you guys go ahead and just
kind of tug on 'em for me? - So here we were then
about to take to the skies in one of the rarest
aircraft in the world. Just listen to that engine sound. I'll let you hear the whole thing. Our route up to Alliance
today, then took us Northeast out of Denver to cross
into the Nebraska panhandle landing into Alliance after a flight time of exactly one hour,
cruising at 19,000 feet. So on board, the Metroliner
heading to Alliance Nebraska. How flipping cool is this
plane to ride on, man. The noise, the sound from
those engines, just incredible. "The Flying Pencil", I
think it has many names related to its long phallic shape. But I'll stick with the flying pencil because we're a family
friendly channel on here most of the time. So yeah, about an hour's
flight from here then in Denver up to Alliance, Nebraska. Alliance sees just two flights a day operated by Denver Air
Connection on the Metro. We've got a night there
tonight when we get there. So we'll be able to land,
to have a look around. Tomorrow morning flying
back to Denver again on "The Flying Pencil". The seats are in this staggered config where you have like an
absolute ton of leg room in front of you. I mean, just look at that. Not far off a lie flat
bed for a one hour flight. It's interesting, the age of the aircraft, it's a pretty old plane now. They've not made them in many years, but the chance to ride
on one of these in 2021 is just insane. All too soon we're starting
our descent into Alliance. Not that you'd know it by
looking out the window. Believe it or not, we were
on short final at this point, out of the window, just a sheet of white. Alliance was, let's just say,
a little more remote and bleak than I've perhaps been expecting. It was minus 30 Celsius outside. At this point, I was
starting to rethink my plans of walking the five miles to my hotel. There's no taxi service in
Alliance, let alone an Uber, so I was starting to get
a little bit worried. - All right, guys, welcome to Alliance. Can I just ask you remain
seated a little bit longer, the captain will let you out. - That visibility didn't
look great on approach. - Yeah, it was like a half mile or so. - Good job, dude. - I didn't know where to land. - I was going to say, how did you see? - down there, you know? It was down there somewhere but... - You did great. - I wish they'd have done
at least one little plow to give me a strike but I saw... It was just trying to
put it between lights. Thanks guys, you all ready? - Yep.
- Thank you. - Come on out. - Hi. - I'm going to Minnesota, I'm used to it. - Yeah, you're used to it, you're good. Thanks guys. - Hey, I'm even crazier,
I'm staying over tonight and then we go tomorrow, so. - Oh, good. Yeah, welcome, welcome. - Thank you very much.
- See you later. - Thank you. - Thanks guys, appreciate it. - Thank you. - Thank you, ma'am, appreciate it. Thanks for flying with us. - You got a ride down to the
wherever you're needing to go? - I haven't got a ride, no. - I can give you a ride if you need one.
- Really, is that alright? Thank you so much, very kind of you. Thank you. - That way you don't have to f**k around. - Yeah, thank you. - You guys picked a hell of a day to fly. - Hey, I know, yeah. Well, hopefully it's no
worse than this tomorrow, so. - No, it's supposed to be
worse than this tomorrow. - Oh, is it?
- Yeah. - Oh no, okay. - But I'm not flying tomorrow, so. - Oh, you're all right with that then. - Oh yeah, I'm good. - Thank you very much. As expected, the airport
at Alliance is really tiny. There's just a small cafe
and well, that's about it. There's no car rental either, which makes getting to your destination that little bit trickier. Alliance Municipal Airport
was built during World War II and served as a base for
over 14,000 paratroopers who went on to take part
in the Normandy landings. Its first airline service
was with Western DC-3s in the 1940s and Frontier also
flew here with Twin Otters but they ended in 1980. In 2003, Great Lakes started
serving Alliance once more with Beach 1900s as part of
the essential air service. In the 12 months to the
end of January, 2021, just 2,882 passengers
flew through Alliance or roughly eight per day, coming in firmly as the least used airport in the lower 48, just below the second
lowest, Glen Dive, Montana, which had 13 more passengers last year. So you guys, follow that guy. What's your Instagram?
- JFK.spotting. JFK.spotting on Instagram, yeah? - Yeah. - Awesome.
- Awesome meeting you. - Yeah, good to meet you too. - Have fun hopefully. - Enjoy your flight back to Denver, sir. - Thank you, thank you. - And hopefully I get back out tomorrow if the weather is getting worse. It was time to join my new friend for the drive in to Alliance. - Do you have any... Is it okay if we throw that in the back? - Absolutely, yeah, thank you. It's heavier.
- Yeah. - You should crawl in there. - Perfect, thank you. - What's up, dude. - I just go on in here. - Do you have it? - Got it, thank you. - I got to give him a ride
to your grandpa's hotel. - Okay. - So, well I think we'll
drop you off first. - Yeah, lets jump. - This thing started huh?
- Oh, yeah. - Where are you from, Australia? - England. - Holy Christ.
- Yeah. - The hell are you doing out here? - So I'm a YouTuber. I make videos of my aviation
and airlines around the world. So I came to fly on the
Metroliner and also visit Alliance which is the least used
airport in the mainland US. - This is? - This is, yeah. - Oh, wow. I'm telling you, we've got everything. - Yeah, absolutely. So I've got a night
here and then hopefully back out tomorrow to Denver, yeah. - Oh, 24 below. - 24 below? - That'll make the old
nut sack shrink, won't it? - Oh, yeah. - This is my cousin here.
- Ah, okay. He lives just right over
here in the big hill. - Okay. - So worked out then for us, he bought my Polaris and sh*t. So we're going to go drop him off, then we're going to drop my girlfriend off and then I'll give you a ride. - Awesome, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Alliance has a population
of just 8,000 people. So what's it like living
in Alliance, then? Is it a nice place to live? It is a good place. It's how you accept anywhere you know what I mean?
- Yeah. - You can make it your
home if you accept it. - Accept it, yeah. It's nice to see real America. - Oh, yeah. - We didn't get to see
much, you know we get - You know, when you
get into the big cities, I'm just going to tell ya, it gets kind of evil.
- Yeah. - Okay? But you get into a small community, it's just more close,
- Yeah. - You know? Small towns are more home. - Definitely. - In my opinion. - Definitely. - So this is like our
little post office here. You know, we got a bunch
of banks in this town. Another one, so hopefully we'll have a room. - Yeah. - Hey, how's it going? - Good, and you? - Good. This gentleman's wondering if
you have any rooms available. - I do. I've got single king, got two queens, and my rate tonight's 95 plus tax. - That's absolutely fine. King is fine, thank you. - Okay. So I just need a form of ID
and form of payment from ya. - Yeah, perfect, thank you. - And you're just looking at one night? - Just, well, hopefully unless the weather changes tomorrow and I'm stuck here. - Do you guys have any
transportation for him to get to the airport tomorrow? - We do not. - Okay, so he'll probably
have to call the airport. They can come and get him. - Okay. - Okay. - Yeah, I'm guessing that
some taxis aren't really a thing here then. - Yeah, we're so small here
and that's a bad thing. - Yeah. - You would think that the
snow would let up here soon, but it just keeps looking like
it's getting worse and worse every time you look out. - We just got back from Jamaica. So, huh, talk about a change, you know. - I was just saying I've been in Mexico for two weeks as well, so yeah. Hence why I'm dressed like this, you know. Thank you very much.
- There you are. - I appreciate that, thank you. - Yeah, and if you don't have
any problems with something, let me know. - Thank you very much. - It's only like eight miles from here. - Yeah, okay. - It ain't no big deal. - Well, here we go then. At Quality Inn, Alliance, Nebraska. Oh, this isn't too bad actually than I was expecting. Nice view. Over the snow, well, here we go. Great, thank you so much
to Lanny and his partner for the ride up from the airport. Everybody's so friendly, I don't know... Everybody's so friendly here. I don't know how I would
have actually got here without it. He said it's a good job he was there because there's no taxis
here, there's no Uber here. And it's about a four or five mile drive into town from the airport. And in this weather, I didn't
really fancy walk in it. So hey, I don't know how I'm going
to get to the airport in the morning, that's another question. Or even if the flight is
going to be going tomorrow because speaking to the
pilot, the weather's closing in tomorrow and it's going
to get any even worse. All right, so I've just had a phone call from the owner of the hotel
who is also Lanny's uncle who's the guy that dropped
me off here earlier on today. And he's going to take me for a tour of Alliance Nebraska. Good to meet you. - Harvey Schnell, pleased to meet you. - Hi, Harvey, nice to meet you. I think you're going to take me to see the best tourist attraction
in Alliance then. - Yeah. - Well, we have some friends... Are you from London?
- Yeah. Or just outside, like two hours. - It's outside of London?
- Yeah. - We had some friends we
met over there in '90... '95, I think is, guy by the name of Bob and Carol. - Right. - But it don't ring a bell to you. - Well, there's lots
of Bobs at Carols yeah. Well, you lived out here
all of your life then. - Well, I've been, I've lived here for 75 years. - Wow. - You must like here then, yeah? - Well... - It's home. - I don't know, World War II was still
going on when we moved here and we're still here, so. - Oh, wow. Oh, would you take a look at this. This, well this is Carhenge and it's a replica of
Stonehenge made entirely out of used cars. And it's the number one tourist attraction in Alliance, Nebraska. Look at that. How cool is that? There we go. Come to Alliance Nebraska
and you can see Carhenge. There we go, the biggest grain elevator in Alliance, Nebraska. After the excitement of Carhenge and Alliance's largest grain elevator, we stopped at these grain silos, which I have to admit
did look very similar to the last ones. It started to feel like we were running out of things to film. - You want to get a picture of some geese? - Ah, sure. - Okay. - Thankfully it wasn't
long before things started to look up. We found a brewery. Let's go get this man a beer. - How're you guys? - Fine, how are you? - It's pretty good, thanks. - Loving this Nebraska weather. - It looks different, we
haven't seen that for... - It's been a while. - It has been a while. - About six miles East of town. But we actually have a
little more snow out there. - Well, I don't know, do
you guys ever know T-bone? - T-Bone Rodjak? - Yeah. - I work with his son, Pork Chop. - Oh. - Here at the brewery, you
can get draft beer to go which they come on the premises. As we headed back to the hotel, it was clear the weather
had set in for the night. Wondering what the status is with that because we're getting quite a
lot of snow up here tonight. It's still all going on tonight. Okay, great, thank you. Okay, so back in the my
room, at the Quality Inn at Alliance, Nebraska and this snow is really coming down. All the guys in the bar were like, half of them were pilots, they're like, "Yeah, that flight is not
leaving in the morning." Even getting to the airport, I mean, I spoke to the
public transport company who are the only sort
of people in the town who provide taxi services. There's no Uber, of course, there's no taxi here. And they were saying that
until the roads get cleared in the morning there's no way on earth that they are going to be running. Oh, right, it is flipping freezing. We're down to minus 29 right now with a wind chill of about minus 40. This snow is just getting worse. They say we do have another
sort of 10 inches tonight. So who knows if we're going to actually
get out of here tomorrow? I don't know. It's not looking good, guys. It's not looking good. Have an Arby's next to the hotel. And I'm going to see if
there's something else because I don't fancy that. Let's try and cross the
street here without getting... Ooh, there's a McDonald's over there, there's a Maccas. Jeez, Louise it is flipping freezing. Oh my goodness. Oh, this snow is so deep, man. Oh God, I'm going to
have to walk on the road. Hope I don't get run over. Oh my goodness. You know, just over a week ago, I got here from Mexico, it was plus 30. I liked that temperature. Here, it's minus 30. So I've dropped 60 degrees in a week. It's not meant to be this cold. Why is it so cold? I'm saying what, I'm certainly
glad I bought this gear in Denver this morning. Right, so let's have a
look at what we got here. Dollar Tree, Family
Dollar, Verizon Wireless and a Sam & Louies. That's better. Hmm, calzones, very nice. This is huge. Hmm, delicious-o. Right. Here we go. Sam & Louies pizza, really nice. Good bunch of people in there as well. Really nice pizza there. God, and then it is
freezing cold out here. minus 30. I don't even know if I'm going
to be back here tomorrow. I'm hoping to fly out at 6:00 AM now. So fingers crossed I get to leave and the flight goes and everything but this weather, man is, it's not looking good. Well, good morning from
Alliance, Nebraska. It's 5:30 in the morning. My flight leaves in an hour, apparently. We've had a lot more snow overnight. I don't know if you can see out there, I don't know, it's sort
of looking right now. But right now, there's probably about two
feet of snow on the ground outside here, at least. But there is cars. I can see cars kind of moving up there. So maybe we'll be all right. Who knows if we're going to get out? I've got a Lyft coming from Lanny. Lanny, the guy who gave
me a lift yesterday, his uncle, he's the guy that
took me around on my tour of Alliance yesterday. And he's going to be taking
me hopefully to the airport. Hello. - Good morning. - Good morning, how are you? - It's too early. - That it is. - Would you like a muffin? - I would always like a muffin. - We got double chocolate, blueberry and vanilla nut. - Blueberry, if you have one
please, that'd be amazing. Thank you. There's cars on the road. So fingers crossed the roads are clear. - Oh, the planes are going. - The plane's going, yeah. It came last night, I saw. - Yeah. - So they say - One of my friends-
- Thank you. - flew in on that plane last night. - You want me to heat it up for ya? Well, I think I'm good. I think I'm good.
- Okay. - Yeah, one of my friends flew
in on that plane last night. - Really? - I was like eew. - It was not good yesterday
morning when we landed. You couldn't see the runway,
it was just like white. The pilot was saying like, I just aimed for the
lights and hoped that... Like down a slide.
- And then it would slide off. - Yeah. - Oh, that's horrible. - So yeah. Oh, it's fun. It's fun. - Well, you fly safe. - Thank you very much.
- Have a good day. - is out to ride off Hollywood ending Sunday. ♪ You've been saving for a rainy day ♪ ♪ Courtesy ♪ ♪ of the red white and blue. ♪ - You know, they keep the
plane in here at night. - Oh, right, okay. - Just pull it round when it's time? - Yup. ♪ When you hear my freedom start ringing ♪ ♪ And it feel like the whole wide world ♪ - Thank you. Oh, there we go, sir, thank you. - Yeah. - Hey, take that. - Oh, no, no, no, no. - I insist, seriously. It's the least I can do. Well, after yesterday and today seriously. Get yourself some beers. - Well, thank you very much. - Good morning, how are you? - My apologies, let me
get my mask on though. - Hi, Kathy, how are you? - Hey, how are you, sweetheart? - I'll bet you don't see this very often. - All right, I just need ID. - Yeah, I got it, thank you. - Did you fly in yesterday? - I did, yes. - He was the other plane
enthusiast yesterday. - Oh my. - There were two of us, yeah. And I stayed over, and I wasn't sure we were going to get out today. - As far as we know,
Denver's weather's good. So they got the runway plowed. - Yeah. - Denver weather... Good morning. - Pilot said it was better in
Denver than here right now. - Is he the only one leaving this morning? - Well, he could be, because we're closing that
counter in about three minutes. And he's the only one here, so. - There was another car
pulled in, didn't it? - Oh, it did? - Another car pulled in in front of us. - Oh, good, then maybe
someone else is here. - So maybe there's some... Yeah.
- Yeah. - Well, I mean, anybody else booked? - Three people. - Three?
- Yup, three. - Is one of 'em Ricky? - That's tomorrow. Is that tomorrow? - Yeah, tomorrow. - Tomorrow?
- It's tomorrow, yeah. - Do you want to just do a
plane side for that red bag? Let me check it. - Can I check it, please? Is that all right? Saves me... - Who are you flying with
once you get to Denver? - Eventually United. - But not today? - Well, later on tonight. - Well, do you need... Okay, it's already been checked. We can check it all the
way to your destination. - Can you? - Yes. - That'd be amazing in fact. - And then you don't have
to worry about it at all. - That would be perfect. If you can check it through...
- Put it on the scale board. And we'll check it all the way through. - Thank you. - Okay, it looks like you're... - Cheers, Harvey. Thank you so much, man.
- Everybody's here. - You bet.
- Appreciate it. - He's in good hands here. - Sorry? - He's in good hands here. - Oh, you bet your life. - This man has been looking after me. I got a tour of the lions yesterday, so. - That's nice.
- Yeah. He's a good man, yeah. - It's good to be in his hands. - Thank you. - All right, sir, there you go. - Thank you very much. - Don't throw this away,
because if you get home and you don't have your bag, - Okay. - That's how you're going to find it. - Perfect, thank you so much. - So keep that one.
- Thank you. - You're welcome, thank you. - Cheers, Harvey thank you.
- You bet. - See you in a month, thank you. Thank you. - I'll get out of the way here. - So we made it to Alliance Airport. And what a little place this is, the flight is going, as far as we know, the runways are plowed, we're ready to go. Alliance was actually, there was an army base here,
and it was a Naval base, I think it was well back in the war as is the case with many sort of airports and they use these drones and things. Gliders. A lot of history here, actually for such a small town,
they've got a lot of history. And the terminal building is
effectively just like a house. Despite the friendly small
town nature of Alliance, Apple there's still certain procedures that have to be gone through. - Oh I do, yeah. We have a mix. - And Denver law requires
that each person wear a mask at all times throughout the flight. - Oh, sorry. - I'm sorry.
- You all have a safe day. - Sorry, I've not had coffee yet. - Just rip it out from - Absolutely. Thank you very much. - You betcha, thank
you for flying with us. - Thank you, maybe see you soon. - Safe travel. - Thank you, bye-bye. - All right-y. - My ride back to Denver was on exactly the same Metroliner that
brought me over yesterday. - Thank you. - Good morning, sir. How are you? - Good, how are you? - I'm really good, thank you. - That looks very good. Thank you very much. - Thank you. - Anywhere behind row four would be great. - Behind row four. All right, thank you.
- Yep. - Good morning. - Morning. - Regarding the safety features of Denver Air Metro liner. Above your seat, place
the mask over your nose. Keep fastened all the time except when the seatbelt sign is off. And just to double check the
seat belts really quickly. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. - So that was that then
it was time to say goodbye to Alliance, the town I'd
arrived in less than 24 hours ago but being treated just
like one of their own. Our route back to Denver then took us Southwest out of Alliance and back into Colorado. Flight time today was one
hour and seven minutes cruising at 20,000 feet. All right, so we took off. Yay. And we're on our way back down to Denver. This is such a cool little plane. I mean, there was no way on earth I thought we were getting
out of there this morning. The state of the weather, the snow, the deep snow everywhere. And the fact that it's minus 30, doesn't seem to phase
this aircraft at all, it is incredible. No de-icing needed. I'm guessing it's probably
too cold to de-ice. That is often the case, but I'm not sure. There is a bit of ice
build-up on the wing. About an hour's flight now
back down to Denver, Colorado, we made it. You know what, when I
decided to book a flight to the least used airport in the mainland US and see what was there, I have to admit I did not have a clue what to expect when I got there. What I found there was just
the most lovely community in the middle of nowhere in the harshest of environments. This amazing incredible community who all look after one another, they all know one another and took me in like a
member of their own family. Honestly, that to me is
what small towns are about. And that is what life should be like, everybody just looking after one another taking care of one another
and having everybody's back. You know what, I might
never end up going back to Nebraska again. I might never meet Lanny and Harvey again and all the other people that
made my trip here so special. But despite all of that, they've left a mark right
just here on my heart. It is such a lovely place. And my time here really, well, I'm going to remember this forever. ♪ Didn't seem to do you any good ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I know you've tried so hard ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ I know you've done your part ♪ ♪ It's not fair, ♪ ♪ you did your time ♪ ♪ How much longer will
you suffer in this life? ♪ ♪ But don't give up, just hold on tight ♪ ♪ It'll be alright ♪ I'd like to say a big thanks
to my patrons as well today. You can join them at the
link on the screen now to join my WhatsApp group and get access to my weekly Zoom call as well as loads of other benefits. - Thank you very much. - Come on in. - Thank you. Thank you. We made it back to the hustle and bustle of Denver International Airport. One of the busiest airports in the US. What an experience. That was an absolutely incredible time heading up to Alliance, Nebraska and back with Denver Air Connection
on the Metroliner, such a cool plane. But also everybody up
there in Alliance as well which was just an incredible experience. Thank you so much to everybody
in Alliance, Nebraska who made my trip there really, really fun. It was great to meet you all and great to see the town and guys, if you want to go and
check out Alliance Nebraska, go ahead. They have such a lovely
bunch of people up there. And they'll be happy to have you. In the meantime, as always,
thanks so much for watching. Take care and I'll see
you on the next one. Bye for now.
This brought back some memories. I flew out of Alliance to Denver on a puddle jumper once. But back in the late 70's I used to get drunk with a friend and "someone" would steal the blue lights off the runway. Yes, you could just drive out onto the runway at night in the good old days. Damn I'm old.
I’m curious what definition they’re using for “airport” because there are a lot of smaller towns than Alliance with airports that get used significantly less, i.e. Valentine, NE
Hundreds of Millions are spent each year on the Essential Air Service that subsidizes these flights. Neat plane.
Edit: Specifically for these flights it looks like ~2.4 million granted this year.