SkyWest to Launch New Delta Connection Flights from North Dakota

Delta Air Lines will increase westbound service from three North Dakota cities to Delta’s Salt Lake City hub with its summer 2010 schedule.

By June, Delta Air Lines will add two new daily round-trip flights between its Salt Lake City hub and Bismarck and Minot, as well as an additional daily round-trip flight between Salt Lake City and Fargo.

Delta’s expanded service from Bismarck and Minot will be operated by Delta Connection carrier SkyWest Airlines using 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets. SkyWest will operate Delta’s expanded service from Fargo with 70-seat CRJ700 regional jets. These two Bombardier jet types feature two-by-two seating with no middle seats.

“North Dakotans will benefit greatly from Delta’s new westbound connections to the Salt Lake City hub, making it faster and more convenient to travel from their hometowns to points across the Mountain West, West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii,” says Bob Cortelyou, Delta’s senior vice president ― network planning. “With Delta’s expanded westbound schedule, business travelers in Bismarck, Fargo and Minot will now have the choice of doing business in cities across the West Coast and returning home the same day.”

SkyWest Airlines operates a large fleet of Bombardier CRJ200s amd CRJ700s as a Delta Connection franchisee at Salt Lake City, serving almost 100 destinations and operating well over 200 departures daily from the Utah airport

With the summer 2010 schedule, Delta plans to offer North Dakota customers 34 peak-day departures from six airports ― nine from Bismarck; two from Devils Lake; nine from Fargo; five from Grand Forks; two from Jamestown; and seven from Minot. The new flights from Minot will be the first ever offered to the Salt Lake City hub.

Customers traveling between North Dakota and Salt Lake City will have convenient connections to more than 300 peak-day Delta departures to nearly 90 destinations, including international flights to Tokyo Narita, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Mexico City.

In addition to expanded service to Salt Lake City, Delta offers daily flights between the six North Dakota airports it serves and its hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Delta will introduce its new Delta Connection North Dakota flights ― which are available for sale to customers beginning Saturday, February 13 ― in two phases, on May 3/May 4 and June 10.

On May 3, SkyWest will begin service from Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS) when flight DL4878 departs SLC at 7:45 p.m. to arrive at BIS at 10:55 p.m. The following morning, flight DL4889 will depart BIS at 6:40 a.m. to make an 8:00 a.m. arrival at SLC.

Then, on June 10, SkyWest will start operating the second daily Salt Lake City-Bismarck service, with flight DL4890 leaving SLC at 1:45 p.m. to reach BIS at 4:55 p.m. The return flight (which Delta also shows as DL4890, but which will presumably feature a different flight number) is scheduled to depart BIS at 5:25 p.m. and land at SLC at 6:45 p.m.

Similarly, on May 3 SkyWest will begin operating Delta Connection service between Salt Lake City and Minot International Airport (MOT). Its flight DL4876 is timed to leave SLC at 7:45 p.m. to reach MOT at 11:05 p.m. The next morning, DL4881 is scheduled to leave MOT at 6:30 a.m. and arrive at SLC at 8:00 a.m.

On June 10, SkyWest will start operating its second daily SLC-MOT flight, DL4880 leaving SLC at 1:45 p.m. to reach MOT at 5:05 p.m. The return flight (which Delta also shows as DL4880 but which will probably actually be given a different flight number) is timed to depart MOT at 5:30 p.m. and reach SLC at 7:00 p.m.

Also on June 10, SkyWest will expanded Delta’s daily nonstop service between Fargo’s Hector Field (FAR) and Salt Lake City with one additional daily flight. On that day, Delta’s existing flight DL4505 will be re-timed to leave SLC at 7:45 p.m. in order to make an 11:05 p.m. arrival at FAR. Flight DL4826, a new number for an existing flight, will depart FAR at 6:25 a.m. and reach SLC at 7:55 a.m.

On the same day, SkyWest will begin operating flight DL4919, the flight leaving SLC at 1:45 p.m. and raching FAR at 5:05 p.m. The return flight, given the same flight DL4919 number for now, will push back at FAR at 5:35 p.m. to land at SLC at 7:05 p.m.