GREAT FALLS — Great Falls International Airport (GTF) announced this week that Delta Airlines will transition their three daily flights to Salt Lake City (SLC) to 76-seat aircraft starting in October.
Airport officials said in a news release that one flight on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday will remain on a 50-seat jet in October, but by November, all SLC flights at GTF will be on 76-seat aircraft.
"With the expansion in Salt Lake City, as they complete the concourses for the newer areas, they had told us they were going to retire a lot of the 50 seat gates and those gates would be upgraded to larger planes and we would likely be in that mix,” said John Faulkner, director of the Great Falls airport.
The 76-seat schedule change remains in place through Delta’s current planning window which is the end of January, but the change most likely will remain after that. All 76-seat aircraft will have a first-class cabin.
The news release also states:
Delta’s SLC expansion is an important step forward for air service in Great Falls. Higher airfares over the past year are primarily a result of capacity reductions during the pandemic and ongoing pilot shortages combined with a return of strong demand for air service.
Similar dynamics are being felt in small communities across the US as detailed in a recent Wall Street Journal report available on our Facebook page. Like every commodity, the primary means of lowering cost is an increase in supply and this capacity expansion along with added capacity from both United and Allegiant this fall; will help to moderate prices.
Airport officials also noted that there is currently no announced timeframe for resumption of Minneapolis flights, but says that Delta anticipates those flights will return as capacity limitations from the pilot shortage subsides.
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