Return of Commercial Air Service

Delta Air Lines is the first airline to return commerical air service to Salem after a 13 year absence. See below for the story on how this became a reality. The city hopes to attract more airlines to Salem. If you support having more airlines providing service to Salem with additional destinations, below are the airlines with the best potential to serve Salem and the possible cities they would serve from Salem. You are encouraged to contact them. Click on the "Contact Us" link to reach thier customer service.

	Allegiant Air Non Stop Service to Las Vegas and Phoenix (702) 505-8888 Contact Us
	Delta Air Lines Non Stop Service to Los Angeles and Salt Lake City (800) 221-1212 Contact Us
	Horizon Air Non Stop Service to Los Angeles and Seattle (800) 547-9308 Contact Us
	SkyWest Non Stop Service to Denver, San Francisco and Seattle as United Non Stop Service to Los Angeles as Delta (435) 634-3000 Contact Us
	United Airlines Non Stop Service to Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. (800) 864-8331 Contact Us
	US Airways Non Stop Service to Las Vegas and Phoenix (800) 428-4322 Contact Us

The story of the return of Airline Service to Salem:
City officials have had conversations with a number of different carriers in the past few years. These carriers include Horizon Air, Delta Air Lines, Allegiant Airlines and Big Sky Airlines.

To have Delta Air Lines return commercial airline service to Salem, The Salem Municipal Airport applied for a $500,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Program. Salem competed with cities all over the United States and was successful in winning the full amount it applied for. As part of the grant, Salem Area Businesses were to contribute $100,000 for marketing the new service. With the help from the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, $75,000 was raised, the Oregon Department of Aviation contributed the remaining $25,000 from its Oregon Air Service Initiative Program. The Salem Airport also contributed over $50,000 in kind donations from waived landing fees for the first year.

The most recent conversations had been with Delta Air Lines with twice daily service to Salt Lake City, with connections to 111 locations, and a possible daily flight to Los Angeles with 31 domestic connections. There would be 3 international connections from Salt Lake City and 15 international connections from Los Angeles. They are using 50 passenger regional jets. The Small Community Air Service Grant described above and another $500,000 travel bank was raised by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce from local businesses and was offered to Delta, along with a $100,000 marketing package. This effort was successful with Delta beginning service on June 7, 2007.

Earlier conversations with Horizon Air indicated the service would start with three daily flights to Seattle-Tacoma Airport (Sea-Tac) on a 37 passenger turbo-prop aircraft. From there, travelers would have the option of 63 domestic and 13 international connecting opportunities. Click below to see the opportunities:

....................The Cities (PDF)................ The Route Map (jpg)

Horizon Air still looks at the Salem market as to whether to return or not. It is a bottom line issue and the service must show a profit for Horizon Air. If the service on Delta Air Lines is strong, Horizon Airlines returning to Salem is a strong possibility. We still keep in contact with Horizon Air and Salem has the most to offer over any other city seeking passenger plane service.

Allegiant Airlines would provide 4 times weekly service to Las Vegas. The will use 130 passenger MD 83 jets. Allegiant is very interested in serving Salem and conversations continue.

Big Sky Airlines would provide daily service to Boise using 19 seat turbo prop aircraft. If other airline service in Salem is successful and there is enough demand for Boise, this option will be pursued.