By Mark Barrett • August 17, 2010
ASHEVILLE — Local travelers will get another option to get to New York starting Oct. 31, when US Airways begins twice-daily nonstop service between the city's LaGuardia Airport and Asheville Regional AirportUS Airways' flights will offer convenient connections for business travelers and should create some downward pressure on fares between New York and Asheville, said airport Director Lew Bleiweis.
US Airways' schedule “allows a businessperson to go up (to New York) in the morning, conduct business and come back the same day,” he said.
Delta Air Lines flies once daily between Asheville and LaGuardia, and Continental Airlines has one flight a day — scheduled to increase to twice a day next month — to Newark Liberty International Airport in northern New Jersey.
US Airways will offer early morning and late afternoon departures from Asheville and afternoon departures from LaGuardia. Delta's LaGuardia flight leaves Asheville at midday.
The Delta flight has attracted good passenger loads, and fares on it have crept up as a result, Bleiweis said. US Airways' move could result in more competitive fares from all three airlines, he said.
Asheville Regional has been able to lure additional air service to several destinations in recent years, and recent growth in passenger levels makes it more attractive to carriers. The fiscal year that ended June 30 was apparently the airport's busiest ever as measured by commercial passenger enplanements.
Asheville is one of seven airports where US Airways said Monday it will begin LaGuardia service. The list includes Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina, which will have one nonstop daily.
The moves resulted from the expiration of a deal in which US Airways leased some of its LaGuardia flight slots to another airline, said US Airways spokeswoman Michelle Mohr. It is also expanding LaGuardia service to three cities.
The airline proposed last year transferring some of its landing rights at LaGuardia to Delta in return for flight slots at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., but the carriers decided not to go ahead with the deal because of conditions imposed by the federal government.
Asheville-LaGuardia flights will be on 50-seat regional jets operated by a commuter affiliate.
LaGuardia is not a US Airways hub, but Mohr said travelers will be able to connect to flights to a number of destinations through LaGuardia, particularly other Northeastern cities.
Most may be going no farther, however. After Orlando, Fla., the New York area is the second-most popular destination for people flying out of Asheville, according to airport statistics.
US Airways had offered two nonstop flights between Asheville and LaGuardia until stopping the service in November 2004. That was a couple of months after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, although an airline spokeswoman said at the time that the timing was coincidental.
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