Major airline asks to suspend Hilton Head flights as travel dwindles during coronavirus
Delta Air Lines has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to allow the air carrier to suspend service to the Hilton Head Island Airport and eight other smaller airports due to the coronavirus, according to a report from Reuters.
The airline typically operates around three flights to and from Hilton Head Island each day.
The request to suspend service comes as the airline has reported single-digit numbers of passengers on flights in the weeks since coronavirus shut down the travel and tourism industries.
Flight loads in late March were “all over the place,” Beaufort County Airports Director Jon Rembold said.
“It ranged from five to seven people to maybe 25 to 30 people at the highest. ... It’s been all over the map, and it’s impossible to predict.”
Rembold said American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have canceled several flights each week since the start of the pandemic.
Delta also requested suspension of its services to Lansing, Flint and Kalamazoo in Michigan; Peoria, Illinois; Worcester, Massachusetts; Pocatello, Idaho; Brunswick, Georgia; and Melbourne, Florida, Reuters reported.
The airline argued to the Department of Transportation that passengers can use nearby airports if they need to travel in the coming weeks. On Hilton Head, passengers could use the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Pooler or the Charleston International Airport.
Airlines must maintain minimum service levels in exchange for cash grants from the U.S. Treasury to assist in payroll costs unless the Department of Transportation issues a waiver, Reuters reported.
But the chances of the government granting the request don’t look promising.
The department has rejected most recent requests from airlines to halt service, including those from Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines and JetBlue Airways Corp., Reuters reported.
