By Warren L. Wise wwise@postandcourier.com
Charleston airport’s list of distant destinations continues to grow.
On Friday, Delta Air Lines will launch nonstop service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and the Holy City, bridging the Twin Cities of the upper Midwest with history-steeped Charleston. The return flight from Charleston starts Saturday.
When announced last fall, the flight was said to be daily and year-round, but the airline’s website shows some days without daily service and the flight ending in early September.
The flight from Charleston will now be six days a week with no service on Sunday, according to Gary Edwards, a liaison between the Lowcountry airport and Charleston’s tourism agency, Explore Charleston. There are no nonstop flights July 7-14, he said.
Passengers will travel on a 76-seat, single-aisle Embraer 175 aircraft with first-class and coach accommodations for the roughly three-hour flight, according to the airline’s website.
The upper Midwest city is considered not only a destination for business and leisure travelers but also a connecting point, including international travel, since the Minnesota airport is a hub for Delta, Edwards said.
“This is more exciting news for Charleston and the airport,” said Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston. “It provides another link between Charleston and the Midwest.”
Delta is not the first airline to offer a route to the Minnesota cities from South Carolina’s busiest terminal.
Frontier Airlines ran seasonal service between Charleston and Minneapolis from August to November last year.
Delta is Charleston’s oldest carrier and its largest by passenger volume with about 27 percent of the market, currently offering 20 daily flights to five airports in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and New York.
The airline established its Minneapolis-St. Paul flight hub through its 2008 acquisition of Northwest Airlines, which was headquartered in the Twin Cities.
Atlanta-based Delta said it operates more than 400 daily departures from the Minnesota airport, including nonstop service to major West Coast cities and to Asia.
Charleston’s airport now serves nonstop service to 31 airports in 27 cities, including the first transatlantic flights to London on British Airways.
