There have been so many celebrations lately at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) that airport officials may have discovered they were out of champagne when they began to celebrate the airports latest victory – a new non-stop route from PTIA to Denver that was added by United Airlines.

The great news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that PTIA had added a new low-cost airline – Silver Airways – with new direct routes to Florida and Tennessee.

Now, United Airlines has announced that it will begin daily non-stop service to Denver starting on Friday, Sept. 29.

The aircraft used will be the Embraer 175, which can seat about 75 passengers in a configuration in which every seat is either an aisle seat or a window seat.

PTIA has made tremendous strides in the 13 years under Executive Director Kevin Baker, but one of the constant thorns in his side has been the difficulty of landing low-cost airlines and getting more direct routes to and from PTIA.

He has spoken many times over the years on the reasons behind the difficulty of winning those prizes – but the ice certainly seems to be breaking in that regard.

“With the launch of the United Denver nonstop service,” Baker said after the announcement, “United Airlines is providing not only nonstop service to a new destination but also an important new gateway to other points in the west – and international flights to Asia.”

Paul Mengert, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, which runs the airport, and he was also elated by the news.  He said the new route “will connect our community to over 150 destinations.”

Mengert said he’s frequently asked when PTIA will get more flights and added that this is a great step in the right direction.

As airport officials emphasized regarding Silver Air flight – they really want people to use them so that other airlines will add yet more routes.

“I encourage the community to support this new United Airlines service and help us continue to grow our offerings at PTI,” he said.

The addition is a result of United’s recent expansion plan called “United Next” and it came as part of a United announcement of 35 new flights, a dozen new gates and three new clubs in Denver for the airline.

United CEO Scott Kirby pointed out that Denver is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and United is “the Mile High City’s most flown airline.”  He also said it’s essential that his airline “maintain the most modern infrastructure and fleet to support our local employees and customers and deliver a great experience.”