Delta Airlines will soon add an unprecedented fourth daily flight between Valdosta Regional Airport and Atlanta.

VALDOSTA — After battling drastic passenger losses over the summer due to the pandemic, Valdosta Regional Airport is flying higher with plans for unprecedented flight expansion.

In April, with COVID-19 decimating airlines’ profits as passengers stayed away, Delta Airlines cut its three daily roundtrip flights between Valdosta and Atlanta to one. Atlanta is the only destination for scheduled passenger flights from Valdosta.

Now the airport is back up to three roundtrip flights a day said Jim Galloway, airport manager.

On Nov. 20, Delta will add its first-ever fourth Valdosta-Atlanta daily roundtrip flight, he said.

“They were planning on starting four flights on June 8, but the pandemic put a halt to that,” Galloway said.

The flights are still not full; Delta is limiting the passenger load to 33 people per plane instead of the usual 50 for social distancing needs, he said.

The pandemic hurt the airport in other ways as well. Hertz, one of two car rental companies with booths at Valdosta Regional Airport, filed for bankruptcy in May, closing the Valdosta airport location. The loss of rental car fees was the biggest financial hit the pandemic dealt the airport, Galloway said.

He said Budget Rent-A-Car is planning to move in to the old Hertz desk at the airport. 

Two other rental car firms offer service at Valdosta Regional Airport. Avis has its own booth there; Enterprise Rent-a-Car doesn’t have a desk at the airport, but its locations in Valdosta rent parking spaces at Valdosta Regional and provide a drop box for keys.

The only food vendor at the airport, Subway, has cut back hours, but “they’re happy with that,” Galloway said. In past interviews he said the sandwich shop does big business with workers from a nearby industrial park.

The airport manager said that general aviation perked up slightly early in the pandemic as some passengers turned to private planes instead of commercial air, but the general aviation traffic has settled back down to where it was before the pandemic.