As Delta Airlines Flight 4675 from Atlanta taxied down the tarmac at Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, two fire trucks sprayed water to form an arch over the aircraft.
The water salute marked the opening of a new route that connects Rapid City to the world’s busiest airport and beyond.
The arrival of the first non-stop flight from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Rapid City at 11:15 a.m. is a milestone in the growth of Rapid’s City’s airport.
It took years of hard work and cost $19 million to modernize the Rapid City Regional Airport, but the investment paid off, said Ray Carpenter, president of the Rapid City Regional Airport Board.
Gaining direct access to Atlanta, the largest hub of Delta Airlines, and a city with a population of 5.5 million, is a huge coup, he said.
“This option of nonstop service into Atlanta will allow access to the Southeastern United States and will provide 80 additional destinations across the domestic flight community, as well as the international flight community,” Carpenter said.
Delta will offer weekly flights every Saturday between Atlanta and Rapid City throughout the summer.
Hartsfield-Jackson offers direct service to 207 destinations, including 61 international destinations in 43 countries, according to a news release.
Michelle Lintz, executive director of the Rapid City Convention Visitors Bureau, said she was thrilled when she learned the flight was scheduled, noting the positive impact it will have on tourism.
“Anything that makes it easier for people to get to the Black Hills is great for everyone,” she said.
The Rapid City Regional Airport now offers nonstop service to nine cities: Salt Lake City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix and now Atlanta.
Several airport and city officials were on hand to greet about 60 passengers once they stepped into the airport.
The warm reception, which featured a table of cookies and lemonade was a pleasant surprise. But for 21-year-old Alabama resident Sinrra Swalve, it was icing on the cake. The best part about the flight was simply its existence.
Swalve said came to the Black Hills to visit her relatives who live in the area. As she planned the trip, her relatives repeatedly told her there was no flight from Atlanta to Rapid City.
“My grandpa kept telling me to keep checking the flight cause he was sure it had to stop over somewhere,” she said. “They were double and triple checking that it existed.”
The direct connection doesn’t only benefit people coming to the Black Hills, it makes it easier for local residents to visit the Southeast.
Just ask Jennifer Julian, 35, who moved to Rapid City seven years ago from Charlotte, N.C. She has frequently visited her family in the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area since the move and became quite familiar with the inconveniences of flying from the Midwest to the Southeast.
“It used to be such a pain to fly there from here,” she said. “I’d have to go from here to Minneapolis, then to Atlanta, then to Raleigh and do it all over again on the way back.”
But when Julian returned to Rapid City from her trip to North Carolina on Saturday, she was ecstatic that she was able to skip the stop in Minnesota.
“That one less plane trip is such a huge difference, especially when I’m flying with my son,” she said motioning to her 4-year-old son, Losan Lockhart.
She is hopeful that within time, the flight will be offered year-round, not just seasonally.