SHERIDAN — The interline agreement between the Denver Air Connection and United Airlines has taken effect as of Friday, according to DAC Business Development Director Wade Goetz.

The agreement allows passengers to book trips that include flights to or from Sheridan and Riverton through United’s website and have their luggage automatically transferred between each leg of the trip.

Goetz said the first passenger to use the new service flew from Salt Lake City, Utah to Riverton Monday.

He noted, however, that the implementation of the agreement was the first part of a longer process. Right now, Goetz said, fares for trips that originate locally are currently much higher than flights leaving from Denver because United does not yet apply discounts to local flights that it does to flights leaving Denver.

To help passengers secure better price, Goetz said United has agreed to let passengers fly to Denver from one of the local airports and purchase the ticket for the second leg of their trip once they arrive.

“We anticipate going in a doing some further negotiations, trying to get some better fares on the interline portion so you’re just buying the one ticket,” Goetz said. “So it’s a step-by-step process.”

Goetz also said Sheridan and Riverton will begin appearing on flight aggregators, like Expedia.com or Travelocity.com, in the next four weeks.

“Anticipate in the next couple of months that you’ll see better and better pricing and better and better opportunities with this and we’re going to keep moving from there,” Goetz said.

Passengers traveling from Sheridan with Denver as their final destination should still book their flights through Flysheridan.com, Goetz said, as those flights will not appear on United’s site.