The flight to San Francisco made stops in Elko and Reno, Nevada, as well as Sacramento and Oakland, California.

In 1977, United brought the service back in house using Boeing 737-200 jets flying a San Francisco - Reno - Elko - Ely - Salt Lake City - Denver route with one daily round trip.

SkyWest Airlines provided service to Salt Lake City (SLC) as well as Elko and Reno, Nevada, offering three daily flights each using Piper Navajo aircraft.

Service was reduced to only one daily roundtrip to SLC using a larger Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner aircraft.

The stop in Cedar City was due to the fact that McCarran Airport requires Transportation Security Administration screening not available at Ely.

Great Lakes service ended in March, 2013, as passenger traffic fell below the minimum required to maintain subsidies.

[1] In the year ending April 30, 2022, the airport had 5,583 aircraft operations, average 107 per week: 73% general aviation, 23% air taxi, and 4% military.