I was pleased to learn recently that my local airport, Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR), is pursuing a grant to help it secure a direct flight to a major Midwest hub, improving connectivity to destinations in the Midwest and East Coast from here in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Even with the pandemic dropping passenger numbers last year by 53 percent, about 500,000 flew out of the airport in 2020, and officials expect that number to bounce back up to over a million once travel resumes to normal volumes. Prior to the slow-down, flight capacity averaged around 85 percent.

Currently one can choose from 11 non-stop routes serviced by four different airlines, not all of which operate daily. Allegiant offers the most direct flights (to Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona; Las Vegas; and San Diego and San Francisco, California), though some are only seasonal (the Arizona and San Diego flights). Starting next week, the airline will offer Thursday and Sunday flights to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, as well.

Greater volume and more daily flights are offered by Delta Airlines, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines. Delta flies direct to Seattle and Salt Lake City, while Alaska connects MFR to Seattle, L.A. and Portland.   United will get you the furthest east, to Denver,   in addition to direct flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s great to have several options to fly to those major West Coast international hubs, but if you’re heading east, your travel will involve, at the very least, one stopover. It can really get complicated if your favored airline doesn’t fly to your ultimate destination or has limited connections.

That’s why airport officials here are pursuing a very competitive Small Community Air Service Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant would help them secure a flight to a major hub such as Chicago, Minneapolis or Dallas-Fort Worth. With a direct flight to DFW,    for example, passengers from Medford would have access to 100 additional cities in the East with just that one stop. Medford Airport air service and economic development manager Jason Foster has requested local businesses and organizations send letters of support for the expansion. He’s hoping they will provide statistics showing how often their representatives fly to particular destinations, proving the market for a new non-stop hub. The local Chamber of Commerce, the county and Travel Medford have all offered their support as well.

If officials’ efforts are successful, they hope the new route could be up and running by next year, dependent on negotiations with an airline. Personally, I’m hoping Dallas will be the choice, as we have family in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama, but any addition to our options for points east would be welcome. We really do love the region where we live,  but once we can travel freely and safely again, it would be great to be able to do so with more options from here.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor