Delta Air Lines to Resume Nonstop Flights to Three Cities from RDU

Jan. 8—MORRISVILLE — In a sign of confidence in the recovery of air travel, Delta Air Lines announced Friday that it will resume nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham International Airport and three cities and increase 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 operate four days a week at first, and the Las Vegas flights will be daily.

Delta also said that starting Feb. 11 it will increase the number of flights to Tampa and Orlando from once daily to three times a day.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Delta was the busiest airline at RDU, accounting for nearly a third of all passengers to pass through the airport. With business travel taking an especially hard hit, Delta's share dropped to under 20% last summer, falling behind American and Southwest, but has recovered some.

With Friday's announcement, Delta is partly matching new service that JetBlue announced last month. On Feb. 11, JetBlue will begin 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 last spring, air travel has been slow to recover at RDU and nationwide. The week that included Christmas was the busiest at the airport since mid-March, with 52,812 departing passengers, but that was still down 63.5% from the same week the year before.

The week including New Year's appears to have been busier, said RDU spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco, but final numbers won't be available until next week.

Before the pandemic, airlines flew nonstops from RDU to 57 destinations, including five international flights. As of this week, that number has been reduced to 38 destinations, two international.

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