Sustained passenger demand at the Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport has Delta Airlines bringing larger airplanes to the Northwoods.
The company is also adding another daily flight.
Many airports have seen significant decreases in travel interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn’t been true in Rhinelander.
“We’ve always been a hot summer market. I don’t think the demand has necessarily ebbed because of the coronavirus pandemic. If anything, it might have been amplified by it for people that are looking to escape cities,” said Airport Director Matthew Leitner.
Delta Airlines, which serves the airport, will add back a second daily flight to the Twin Cities on Wednesday.
It had cut its schedule to just one daily flight when the pandemic started.
Rhinelander is also seeing larger aircraft serving the airport than normal.
“It would be an extraordinary circumstance to get a 90- or a 70-seat [aircraft into Rhinelander under normal conditions], but it’s a regular occurrence now. These airplanes are two-class configuration with two flight attendants. You have a first-class cabin and an economy cabin,” Leitner said.
Delta sells a maximum of 60 percent of capacity on its airplanes to allow for better social distancing.
