NEWPORT NEWS, Va (WAVY) – Delta airlines is temporarily suspending travel to the Newport News Williamsburg international airport.Which means the airport itself will be seeing a lot less travel than they already were during the pandemic.
Losing a big airline like Delta, even temporarily is going to hurt them for time being but leaders with the airport say they still have confidence that they will still come out on top.
“There is no way to make up for it it’s gone just like the service that we lost when the emergency orders were put in place,” saidMichael Giardino the Executive director of Peninsula airport commission
A big hit for the the Newport New Williamsburg International airport. when Delta Airlines announced they are suspending all air service.
“Unfortunately those delta customers are going to have to find a different way either out of PHF by American Airlines or they’re going to have to go to other airports,” he said
Under the CARES act the Department of Transportation is allowing airlines to consolidate service where multiple airports share the same area or point.
“PHF and Norfolk were lumped under the same area and they called it a point, because we are part of the same point the airline was not only able to get the subsidy but also consolidate to one aid the airports and they decided to consolidate to Norfolk.”
Giardino said when they heard about this they fought back initially,
“I’m this current circumstance Delta has told us they won’t be back until September so we will see how that plays out,” he said.
But he says they are accepting the changes that are being made not only here but across the country.
“In the meantime we have another airline here American flying and I was very pleased to see numbers today that were better than they have been in the last few weeks,” he said.
He says they’re not letting this ground them, that is in part to their local community.
“We all know that no one like to drive through the tunnel and traffic and we have our own passengers here and it’s proven. The airport has done well in the past,” he said.
He says they started the year well very profitable and are keeping that positivity.
“We are going to weather this storm and come out the other end better than we were,” he said.
“Delta served the airport with up to 13 non stop flights to big cities like Atlanta and Philadelphia daily. Now Mr Giardino says they’ve dealt with consolidating airlines in the past and they’ll bounce back.