A side note that the Delta/NW/KLM route to and from Hartford-Amsterdam will not be up and running from the summer. Due to the current economic conditions Delta opted to drop this route. The state is working dilligently at finding another route. London is an alternative.

April 29,2009
State Incentives Bring Back Flights From Bradley To Europe

Hartford - Northwest Airlines will resume direct flights from Amsterdam to Connecticut next year, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Tuesday, two months after the airline discontinued the service because of high fuel prices.

Northwest, now a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, is scheduled to begin flying again June 2, 2009 from Bradley International Airport, about 14 miles north of downtown Hartford.

The flights will be offered five times a week, with no service on Tuesdays or Fridays, on 160-seat Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

Bradley offered $500,000 in incentives to bring the service back to the state-operated airport, including fee waivers and advertising money. Economic development groups from Connecticut and western Massachusetts also contributed money.

”The fact that we got it back ... is truly miraculous,” said Joseph Marie, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, noting the worldwide economic downturn and the airline industry's financial problems.

Rell and Marie made the announcement at breakfast meeting of the MetroHartford Alliance, an economic development group of 1,000 businesses, education and health care institutions and municipal leaders.

”When an airline cancels service it is rarely resumed, especially one that is international,” Rell said. “That didn't happen in this case. I am determined to make it a go. I may have to take a flight to Amsterdam.”

Marie said Connecticut and western Massachusetts officials worked hard to bring the flights back as quickly as possible after Northwest stopped them in October.

Helping them in their effort is the fact that oil prices have plummeted 70 percent over the past five months, and slipped below $43 a barrel on Tuesday.

A message seeking comment was left for a Delta spokeswoman on Tuesday.

Northwest started nonstop service to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on July 1, 2007, and flights often exceeded 85 percent full during the popular summer travel months, Bradley officials said.

Economic development officials say the Amsterdam flights create at least $37 million in direct and indirect benefits to the region's economy.

”It goes well beyond that,” said L. Scott Frantz, chairman of Bradley's board of directors.

”We can never, ever be able to put our finger on what the value is of someone coming in from Europe or some other part of the world to Connecticut or Massachusetts and saying, 'I love this place, I want to move my company here,”' Frantz told the MetroHartford Alliance crowd. “That, ladies and gentlemen, has happened over the last year and a half.”

The new Bradley-Amsterdam flights are scheduled to be available for booking on Saturday. The schedule calls for European-bound travelers to fly out of Bradley at 5:40 p.m. and arrive in Amsterdam just before 7 a.m. the next day. Flights from Amsterdam to Bradley will depart at about 1:25 p.m. and arrive at about 3:40 p.m.

The flight will be operated in cooperation with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, providing connections beyond KLM's Amsterdam hub to 81 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India.