Deltans can catch flights from Greenville to New Orleans starting April 22.
That's when Boutique Air will begin offering tickets to the Big Easy, on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
The eight-seat Pilatus jets will depart the Mid-Delta Regional Airport in Greenville on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 3:20 p.m., with same-day return flights at 5 p.m., according to Sam Washington, airport director.
The flights will be without subsidy through the federal Essential Air Service (EAS) program.
That program was established after commercial air service was deregulated.
The carriers chose to service the more-profitable large markets, leaving small ones to do without the service.
Boutique Air provides flights between Greenville and Dallas and Nashville through the EAS.
The Dallas flights caught on when “Dak [Prescott] started playing for Dallas,” said Will Coppage, executive director of the Washington County Development Alliance.
Sam Washington, director of Mid-Delta Regional, said, “We're pretty confident [the New Orleans flights] will be a success.”
Coppage said that the Boutique Air service to New Orleans is “a huge announcement for Greenville.”
If successful, Washington said, it might even be possible that the flight schedule might be adjust to enable Deltans to take in the New Orleans Saints' football games on Sundays.
Washington said that improvements are underway or scheduled for the airport, including structural and electrical reworking of the facility's largest hangar and repairs to the apron and shoulders of the taxiway.
By JACK WEATHERLY
Thursday, April 8, 2021