Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA), like airports around the country and the world, have had a rough go of it in the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, things are slowly but surely getting back to normal and one sign of that is, this week, PTIA happily announced that Delta Air Lines plans to resume nonstop flights between PTIA and LaGuardia, beginning on Saturday, June 5.

Delta will offer two flights a day and tickets are back on sale now at delta.com.

Also, American Airlines will resume nonstop flight between PTIA and LaGuardia, beginning Thursday, June 3. American will offer one flight per day. Those tickets are on sale now at aa.com.

PTIA Executive Director Kevin Baker has been talking for months now about business slowly coming back to the airport and about the appearance of “green shoots”  here and there after the air passenger business fell to almost zero in early 2020.   On at least one day last year, there were more people working at the airport than flying in and out of it.

Baker said this week that he was very pleased to see this direct service to the country’s most populous city once again.

“We have been waiting for our New York service to return,” Baker stated in a press release announcing the reestablishment of the flights.  “We expect our passengers will be excited about this return and to have nonstop service to New York again on two of our carriers”.

At the April meeting of the Piedmont  Triad Airport Authority this week, Baker gave the latest passenger stats for the airport.

The number of people flying in and out of PTIA was, year to date as of the end of March, down 63 percent over 2020.

On a more positive note, year to date, the amount of cargo flying in and out of PTIA is up 40 percent over the first three months in 2020.