Lynchburg Regional Airport lost about 2,000 passengers in its first month without Delta Airlines, but traffic still was higher than two years ago.
Airport passenger statistics for January show that while some passengers may have followed Delta to other airports, some began flying on US Airways, Lynchburg’s sole remaining airline.
US Airways has added a sixth flight and kept its prices low since Delta left. That will help keep people flying out of Lynchburg, Airport Director Mark Courtney said.
“US Airways has done so much to help us out,” Courtney said.
Delta’s last plane from Lynchburg to Atlanta flew on Jan. 4. Although Delta carried more than 4,000 passengers per month at Lynchburg Regional Airport, passenger traffic fell much less than that.
In January, 11,158 passengers flew to or from the Lynchburg airport — a 19 percent drop from December, and a 14 percent drop from January 2010, airport data show.
Without Delta, the airport still saw 2 percent more passengers than in January 2009 and 42 percent more than in January 2008. It was the summer of 2008 when US Airways slashed its Lynchburg fares, sparking an increase in passenger levels.
It is not clear how many Delta passengers began flying out of neighboring airports in January. Roanoke Regional Airport passenger statistics for January are not available yet. Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport saw more passengers than in January 2010, but that may have been because of less inclement weather this year, Executive Director Barbara Hutchinson said.
Courtney and local business leaders continue trying to recruit an airline to replace Delta by opening a new route out of Lynchburg. They hope to gain access to a northern hub, which Lynchburg Regional Airport has not had in nearly 10 years.
They hoped US Airways would connect Lynchburg to its Philadelphia hub, but that does not look likely, Courtney said. “We’ve got the most we can out of them as far as additional flights,” he said.
Courtney said his main effort is to get Pinnacle Airlines, or its subsidiary Colgan Air, to offer service to Washington-Dulles International Airport.
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