Business View Magazine | June 2022

229 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 VALLEY INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT upwards of 25% to 30% of travelers through our airport.” Southwest only had two flights a day during the height of the pandemic, whereas pre-COVID they were operating six flights a day. That has now been bumped up to seven, adding 80% more capacity. There are two flights daily to Austin, and the airport now has Frontier flights to Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada – two prime leisure destinations. The airport is home to six domestic carriers, including Delta, Southwest, American, United, Frontier, and Sun County. Delta had to pause services from Minneapolis to the airport over the last two seasons. This was due to the pilot and staffing shortages experienced around the country. Delta is a seasonal carrier for Winter Texans, operating between November to April. Sun County operates the same non-stop flight to Minneapolis from October to May – which helps alleviate the pressure on seats. Valley International is eager for Delta to return, as Delta allows connecting traffic in Minneapolis. Currently, the airport’s carriers are operating at almost total capacity, seeing 97% of seats filled. With the additional flights, this has only dropped to 92%. “These are extraordinary numbers. We believe these numbers would attract airlines to increase capacity as there is a market for operators here,” says Esterly. With commercial operations doing phenomenally well, the same has to be said about the financial status of the airport. While they were doing well financially going into the pandemic, Valley International Airport has been one of the few aviation institutions of its size to be operating without external financial help. “The city does not fund us, we accept no tax dollars from them and we are run strictly like a business,” confirms Esterly.