Delta Air Lines to resume nonstop flights to three cities from RDU

MORRISVILLE

In an indication of confidence within the restoration of air journey, Delta Air Lines introduced Friday that it’ll resume nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham International Airport and three cities and enhance service to two others.

Delta will resume nonstop flights from RDU to Austin and Jacksonville on Feb. 11 and to Las Vegas on March 2. The Austin and Jacksonville flights will function 4 days per week at first, and the Las Vegas flights can be day by day.

Delta additionally stated that beginning Feb. 11 it would enhance the variety of flights to Tampa and Orlando from as soon as day by day to three occasions a day.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Delta was the busiest airline at RDU, accounting for practically a 3rd of all passengers to move by means of the airport. With enterprise journey taking an particularly arduous hit, Delta’s share dropped to beneath 20% final summer season, falling behind American and Southwest, however has recovered some.

With Friday’s announcement, Delta is partly matching new service that JetBlue announced last month. On Feb. 11, JetBlue will start flying between RDU and Austin, Jacksonville, Newark, Orlando and Tampa, and on March 4, will add flights to Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Since dropping off sharply final spring, air journey has been gradual to get well at RDU and nationwide. The week that included Christmas was the busiest on the airport since mid-March, with 52,812 departing passengers, however that was nonetheless down 63.5% from the identical week the 12 months earlier than.

The week together with New Year’s seems to have been busier, stated RDU spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco, however remaining numbers received’t be obtainable till subsequent week.

Before the pandemic, airways flew nonstops from RDU to 57 locations, together with 5 worldwide flights. As of this week, that quantity has been decreased to 38 locations, two worldwide.