La Crosse Airport stays busy without flights by Delta

A week after Delta Airlines ended regular air service through La Crosse, the local airport maintains a busy schedule with other flights.

The airport director, Ian Turner, says 90 per cent of the seats on local American Airlines flights are filled, and he still hopes to get Delta to return in the near future. But Turner doesn’t expect that to happen in the next year or two.

Turner says La Crosse is not alone in feeling the pinch of labor shortages in the aviation business.

“We are one of 75 airports that have seen an airline exit the community since March of 2020,” at the start of the COVID pandemic, said Turner.

American plans to add an extra daily flight from La Crosse to Chicago in July.

Turner says airlines aren’t looking to make many big changes for now.

“The airline industry right now is very much in a ‘maintain the status quo’ (situation), ” he said, so in the next 6 to 12 months, it’s likely that just American will have daily flights in La Crosse. However, Turner says he is talking with “leisure” carriers, who schedule flights to resort destinations like Orlando or Las Vegas.