The Golden Triangle Regional Airport will soon reduce its three commercial flights-a-day schedule to two in April once it begins using two new 76-seater Bombardier CRJ-900 jets from Delta Air Lines.
GTRA Executive Director Matt Dowell told The Dispatch the new jets will replace its current 50-seat CRJ-200s with two round trips a day to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The new jets will include first-class seating options, in-flight entertainment and an overall larger capacity of flyers.
The larger jet service will begin in April, Dowell said.
“Part of the long-term plan is we want to offer the same amenities as bigger airports, just on a smaller scale,” Dowell said. “Having the larger aircraft allows for options where you now have first-class seating; we wanted that for our passengers. We want them to have more legroom, more seating space and more room for their carry-on bags.”
The current three-flight schedule on the smaller jets has takeoff and arrival times of 6 a.m to 8:28 a.m., 12:46 p.m. to 3:04 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. to 6:31 p.m. at GTRA. While the flight schedule for the larger jets has not been finalized, Dowell said, it will include one morning and one evening takeoff time.
Dowell noted the announcement that Delta will be using the larger jets at GTRA came at just the right time as the airport continues to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, the airport has increased its passenger traffic in and out of its terminals from approximately 40,000 to 80,000 per year. Of those passengers, 60 percent are business flyers and 40 percent are personal.
“One of the ways we grow as an airport is because our surrounding communities grow,” Dowell said. “We don’t create the business traveler or the leisure traveler.”
GTRA Airline Consultant Greg Atkin of Ailevon Pacific said the new jets will further enhance the services the airport provides its customers.
“These aircraft will have 12 first-class seats on every flight,” Atkin said. “The flights are timed to provide excellent connections in Atlanta to virtually anywhere in the United States and indeed many locations around the world. This improvement in aircraft will aid in growing and developing the GTR market and will help in attracting even more flights to additional destinations in the future.”
GTRA also is finishing designs for the build out of its second-floor terminal renovation project, which will provide an upstairs terminal and jet bridge to fit larger aircraft. Dowell expects to have those finished and open bidding for the construction project by April.
“I think it’s just perfect timing because we (GTRA) have been trying to grow our terminal to support larger aircraft because we knew what the trends were and the trends were that smaller airplanes are going away,” he said. “The airlines are starting to use larger aircraft. And so it’s great timing that we’ll get a larger aircraft that will be able to benefit from the jet bridge that we’re building.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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