Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today announced it will increase westbound service from three North Dakota cities with its summer 2010 schedule.  By June, Delta will add two new daily round-trip flights between its Salt Lake City hub and Bismarck and Minot, as well as an additional daily round-trip flight between Salt Lake City and Fargo. 

“North Dakotans will benefit greatly from Delta’s new westbound connections to the Salt Lake City hub, making it faster and more convenient to travel from their hometowns to points across the Mountain West, West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii,” said Bob Cortelyou, senior vice president – Network Planning.  “With Delta’s expanded westbound schedule, business travelers in Bismarck, Fargo and Minot will now have the choice of doing business in cities across the West Coast and returning home the same day.”

Added Melissa McLaughlin, Delta’s national sales manager for North Dakota: “As North Dakota’s leading airline, we take very seriously our commitment to making travel accessible between our home state and the more than 350 cites Delta serves around the globe.”

With the summer 2010 schedule, Delta plans to offer North Dakota customers 34 peak-day departures from six airports – nine from Bismarck; two from Devils Lake; nine from Fargo; five from Grand Forks; two from Jamestown; and seven from Minot.  The new flights from Minot will be the first ever offered to the Salt Lake City hub. 

Customers traveling between North Dakota and Salt Lake City will benefit from convenient connections to more than 300 peak-day departures to nearly 90 worldwide destinations, including international flights to Tokyo-Narita, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Mexico City. 

In addition to expanded service to Salt Lake City, Delta offers daily flights between the six North Dakota airports it serves and its hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Delta’s expanded service from Bismarck, Minot and Fargo will be operated by Delta Connection carrier SkyWest Airlines using 50-seat CRJ-200 and 70-seat CRJ-700 regional jets. These jets feature two-by-two seating with no middle seats.