Delta Service into Bloomington, Ill., Airport Begins
By Scott Miller, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Dec. 2–BLOOMINGTON — Travelers boarded Delta Connection airplanes for the first time Thursday at the Central Illinois Regional Airport, despite the apparent unease of airport officials.
Flying under the Delta banner, Atlantic Southeast Airlines began offering three daily round-trip flights to Atlanta.
Airport officials are concerned Delta Connection’s competitive airfares will drive out CIRA staple AirTran Airways, which also flies to Atlanta and is the airport’s sole carrier to Orlando. The Delta Connection daily flights leaving Bloomington — 6 a.m., 11:11 a.m. and 4:55 p.m. — are all near AirTran departures.
The airport earlier this year lost its only flights to St. Louis when American Eagle discontinued service. It would lose Orlando if AirTran left.
At a recent meeting of the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority, board members asked if the airport could move Delta Connection’s CIRA base to another location at the terminal that was more expensive to operate.
“We couldn’t have arbitrarily moved them to another spot because it would cost more for them to operate,” airport Executive Director Carl Olson responded.
Board member Steve Wannemacher reiterated that federal law also prevents the airport from blocking Delta operations altogether. Under federal law, airports must accommodate new airline service if they have the space to do so.
AirTran and Delta Connection, meanwhile, say Bloomington business is fine.
“(Delta) is a concern, but we are doing well,” said AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver. “It’s not a surprise. It’s very often when we start a new route, Delta follows us. We’ve been in Bloomington a long time, but it was one of the last markets we were in that Delta wasn’t.”
About 12 people flew in on Delta Connection’s first flight from Atlanta, said Lisa Walker, Atlantic Southeast Airlines vice president for airport operations, adding Delta Connection’s first day was a good day. The regional jets flying from Bloomington seat 50 people.
“We have 30 to 40 going out (on the next flight),” she said. “We’re excited about being in this market.”
AirTran served about 202,000 passengers in 2004 — nearly half of the airport’s passenger traffic.
Asked about concerns Bloomington couldn’t handle two carriers to Atlanta, Walker said Delta Connection and Atlantic Southeast Airlines do significant market research before offering new services.
“Our concentration is on customer service,” Walker said. “We are connected to the community. We are connected to airport officials to say ‘What do you need?’”
Watching Delta Connection’s first flight arrive Thursday, Olson didn’t discuss the new airline, saying only that operations were running smooth.
Previously, Olson called Delta’s service “disruptive” to the airport and specifically AirTran, the airport’s largest carrier. The business community has also expressed concern about the competing services, lending support to AirTran.
The concern is that Delta could offer significantly cheaper flights and force out AirTran — and that the community is too small to support two carriers with such similar service.
According to the companies’ Web sites, Delta Connection can be cheaper than AirTran. For coach seats on a morning flight leaving Saturday and returning Dec. 12, the lowest listed price for a round-trip Delta Connection flight to Atlanta and back is $331, while AirTran’s is $408.
But on a morning flight leaving Jan. 16 and returning Jan. 25, AirTran’s lowest price is $178, while Delta Connection’s lowest fare is $198.40.
While Delta Airlines filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, Delta Connection — operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines — is an affiliate and is not affected.
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