For the first time in its history, Bloomington-Normal’s Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA) is being added to the route map of a legacy carrier.
Delta Air Lines flight 1782, an Airbus A-319 operating from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to CIRA, is scheduled to arrive at 9:19 this evening. Check this link at Flightaware.com for updates.
What do I mean by a “legacy” carrier? According to Wikipedia, it is:
“…an airline that had established interstate routes by the time of the route liberalization which was permitted by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 and was thus directly affected by that act.”
Only four are left: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways. The last one did not exist before the Airline Deregulation Act, but traces its roots to Local Service Airlines Allegheny and Piedmont (Pacific Southwest Airlines and post-deregulation upstart America West Airlines were part of the mix as well). The US Airways name replaced “USAir” in early 1997.
Delta Air Lines flight 1268 is scheduled to depart CIRA for Atlanta at 6:00 Sunday morning. Delta will begin a second daily roundtrip on June 10. Both replace existing flights operated by smaller regional jets.
Check back here for updates. I’m thinking of blogging from CIRA this evening.
UPDATE: Delta’s first arrival at CIRA is due at 9:35pm. The flight monitors say it is on time.
UPDATE X2: Here’s a photo taken at 9:27pm this evening (16 minutes ago!). I’m watching the many deplaned passengers waiting to retrieve their luggage. I will upload video either late tonight or tomorrow.
UPDATE X3: Check out this video taken Saturday evening. First are ten second scenes of two jets already at CIRA when I arrived. This is followed by about two minutes of video showing Delta Air Lines Flight 1782 taxi to terminal gate.
- David P. Jordan
3 responses so far ↓
1 diane // Mar 2, 2013 at 6:11 pm
Why wouldn’t this be happening in Peoria? I just recently returned from a convention in Las Vegas that about 50 people from Peoria attended. Most of us had to fly out of Chicago or St. Louis because the options out of Peoria were haphazard, indirect and expensive! One group that came back on Friday was delayed almost 8 hours on their return flight. My direct flight from Chicago was right on-schedule both ways. It’s upsetting to be paying via property taxes for an airport that is highly inconvenient and too expensive to use.
2 diane // Mar 2, 2013 at 6:12 pm
… and remember, the trip was to Vegas – it wasn’t like I was trying to fly to Tanzania.
3 David P. Jordan // Mar 2, 2013 at 8:06 pm
Hi Diane,
Well, Delta upgrading service to Atlanta wouldn’t help much if your destination is Las Vegas, but I get your point. I take it your group was too small to charter a plane to Las Vegas?
Too bad Allegiant Air doesn’t offer daily service like they did several years back. Weekly frequencies range from two to four flights, depending on the season. Unfortunately, the airline seems determined to cannibalize its Peoria flights with service out of the Quad Cities. Springfield might get Las Vegas flights in the near future too.
Southwest Airlines service would solve the problem. I don’t see it happening though. About the only good option I see is if American and United would offer more competitive fares to places like Las Vegas. But you’d have to make a connection at Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth or Denver.
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