The Lynchburg Regional Airport will offer direct flights to the Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport through a new partnership with United Express, Lynchburg city officials announced at a press conference Friday.
American Airlines’ service to Charlotte — Lynchburg’s only flight currently offered — will continue to operate when the new flights are added. The Chicago and Washington, D.C., flights will run seven days a week starting March 24 and will be operated by SkyWest Airlines, said Assistant Airport Director Catherine Vance.
The expansion marks the first time since 2011 that the Lynchburg airport will support two airlines simultaneously and the first time since 2001 that direct flights will reach three total locations, said Marjette Upshur, the city’s director of economic development and tourism.
“This partnership is a clear sign that national carriers see what we already know: Lynchburg is on the rise,” Upshur said to a crowd of city staff and council members Friday morning.
Recent local job growth is one factor of many that proved to United that there is promising economic expansion and demand for air travel in Lynchburg, said City Manager Wynter Benda. In the past three years, he said, Framatome and Delta Star have added more than 850 jobs to the region.
Air travel is crucial to Lynchburg’s continued economic development because it sits at the intersection of the city’s three main economic engines, Upshur said: business, higher education and tourism. Accessible flights make it easier for prospective workers, students and travelers to find Lynchburg — and have a reason to stay, she said.
When it comes to economic development, “It’s ‘go big or go home.’ And now literally we can do both,” Upshur said.
It’s been more than two decades since Lynchburg was this connected to the rest of the country and the world, Upshur said. Before 9/11, the airport offered U.S. Airways flights to Pittsburgh, United flights to Dulles and Delta Air Lines flights to Atlanta, she said. The Pittsburgh and Dulles services stopped after the terrorist attacks changed air travel nationwide, and Delta ended its Atlanta service in 2011.
That left the airport operating far under capacity, Airport Director Cedric Simon said in an August interview. The airport could get up to 600 travelers on planes per day with its current layout and infrastructure, but it only serves between 200 and 250 daily travelers with its service to Charlotte, he said.
What Simon and a team of other city staff members presented to United is that there is untapped demand in the Lynchburg area, he said. Of the more than 275,000 people who live in Lynchburg and its surrounding counties, about 600 people get on an airplane every day, he said. If only 200 people board in Lynchburg, that means the region loses 400 customers every day to airports in Roanoke, Charlottesville, D.C. and other nearby cities.
The goal is, with the expanded air service, that Lynchburg will stop bleeding customers, Vance said. She projects that the airport will see 30,000 additional travelers per year with the new flights, adding to the current annual average of 80,000.
Friday’s announcement comes on the heels of a $15 million airport makeover, completed this fall, which brought new pavement, markings, signs and LED lights to the runway. The project, designed to reduce long-term maintenance costs and enhance safety, was funded almost entirely by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport improvement program, Simon said.
The only thing Lynchburg residents need to do to keep air service strong in the city is prove what city staff has argued all along: that there is local demand for air travel, Vance said. Tickets are already on sale for the United flights to Chicago and D.C.
“Let’s fill these seats and show that Lynchburg is ready to fly,” Vance said.