Multiple Michigan-based travel-related groups have filed comments with the U.S. Department of Transportation to object to Delta Air Lines' proposal to suspend service to Lansing's Capital Region International Airport.
Delta in April requested DOT grant a waiver to a requirement of the U.S. federal Covid-19 relief package to maintain air service to smaller locations so that it could suspend service to Lansing and eight other U.S. cities. Delta had maintained service from Lansing to Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Delta received $5.4 billion in payroll support from the relief package, $1.6 billion of which takes the form of a 10-year low-interest loan.
Delta in its application to DOT suggested Lansing travelers could be served by Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich., from where Delta maintains service to Detroit and Minneapolis/St. Paul as well as Atlanta.
In a letter to DOT, Capital Region Airport Authority interim president and CEO Robert Benstein asked the agency to deny Delta the waiver, noting that allowing a service suspension "would be detrimental to Lansing and the mid-Michigan community," citing Delta's 48 percent market share at Lansing and the 170,000 passengers who flew Delta through the airport in 2019.
Benstein wrote that there is no provision in the Covid-19 relief package that allows carriers that receive funding "to serve a community through an 'alternate point.' "
The airport shares the health and safety concerns Delta cited as justification to suspend Lansing service, Benstein wrote, and "we have implemented several procedures and protocols to minimize risk to employees and passengers while [the airport] remains operational," citing the airport's social distancing efforts that include providing employees with masks, gloves and disinfectant wipes, among other measures.
The Mid-Michigan Business Travel Coalition, the Greater Lansing Chamber of Commerce and Grater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau president Julie Pingston also submitted comments to DOT in opposition to granting Delta the Lansing waiver.
"Our business community depends on the easy access to our local airport to provide convenient, reliable connections to over 500 global destinations," wrote Mark Haas, chairman of the Mid-Michigan Business Travel Coalition, which counts more than 200 businesses, governmental and educational organizations as members. "Spending an extra hour or more on the road to travel from another airport is a significant inconvenience from both time and financial standpoint."
Delta this week responded directly to the airport authority's and the Mid-Michigan Business Travel Coalition's comments in a letter to DOT.
"As the Coalition acknowledges, 'non-essential travel is currently not allowed' in Michigan, and the demand for Delta's flights at the Lansing airport has fallen to nearly zero," Delta wrote. "During the period from April 1 through April 22, there was an average of only six revenue passengers per day on Delta's flights there."
Like most U.S. states, Michigan has responded to the coronavirus pandemic by requiring residents stay at home unless travel is necessary.
"Lansing is not a 'remote' community that will lose access to the air transportation system or the medical and pharmaceutical supply chain," Delta wrote. "It is just a 54-minute drive via interstate highway to Grand Rapids airport, where Delta will continue operating service."
Delta continued, "This temporary inconvenience for so few passengers during a state-imposed travel ban in Michigan does not outweigh the public health and safety concerns that Delta has expressed for its airport staff and flight crews who will need to place themselves at risk of exposure to operate these near-empty Lansing flights."
DOT continues to accept comments on Delta's request.