Quad Cities International Airport Restores Daily Service to Minneapolis
Things continue to look up at the Quad Cities International Airport, as twice-daily service to Minneapolis-St. Paul through Delta Air Lines will be restored starting Saturday, June 5.
This news follows the airport’s strongest month since the beginning of the pandemic – in April — with more than 36,000 travelers.
“We know some of our regional peers have lost Delta service entirely, so the fact that Delta sees the value in continuing to serve the Quad-Cities region is immensely important,” airport executive director Benjamin Leischner said in a Tuesday release.
“With service to Atlanta for connections along the east coast and beyond, and Minneapolis for west coast connections, Delta is making sure passengers have easy access to any global destination and we appreciate their continued service here,” he said.
The airline industry has been upended by the prolonged impact of Covid-19, according to the airport. Airlines are rethinking their networks leaving opportunities for smaller airports to pursue service that may not have been previously available.
Representatives from Q-C Airport, in partnership with air service development experts, continue to engage with airlines, both existing and those not currently serving Moline, the release said.
“We are committed to making the Q-C Airport as attractive as possible for new service by offering various means of support and sharing the work our economic development partners are doing to elevate the Quad-Cities region,” said Leischner.
“While the decision to add service lies exclusively with the airlines, we have the ability to influence those decisions and make the case for long-term stability and success for strategic new routes at MLI,” he said.
The Moline airport serves passengers from western Illinois and eastern Iowa. With nonstop and connecting destinations, the airport served over 700,000 passengers in 2019.
Before the pandemic, the Q-C airport’s four airlines served 11 nonstop hubs, or connecting cities, with hundreds of domestic and international connections beyond. With American Eagle, Allegiant, Delta, and United, the cities served typically have been Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando-Sanford, Phoenix-Mesa and St. Petersburg/Clearwater, and Ft. Myers area via Punta Gorda, Fla.
Since late spring 2020, Delta has only flown nonstop from Moline to Atlanta twice daily. The Moline airport saw 60 percent fewer passengers in December 2020 compared to December 2019, and Delta lost the biggest percentage of passengers for the year – 71 percent, compared to a 62 percent decrease for United, 49 percent for American and 42 for Allegiant.
So far in 2021 (through April), Delta also has seen the biggest passenger decline compared to 2019 – 70 percent fewer total passengers, compared to a 47-percent drop for the airport as a whole.
For more information, visit qcairport.com.
