Delta is to run a service three times a week from Heathrow to Salt Lake City, the gateway to Utah’s resorts, many of which are less than an hour’s transfer.
The flight, which begins on May 1, was due to be summer-only, but Delta’s Nat Pieper, the airline’s new senior vice-president for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, told TTG this would now be year-round.
“It will be daily in summer and we will continue it three times a week in winter,” he confirmed. Utah’s resorts, which include Park City, Solitude and the upmarket Deer Valley, where snowboarding is banned, are famous for their powder snow and carry the slogan “The Greatest Snow on Earth”.
The launch of year-round flights is long-awaited by winter sports operators as it means Utah can now rival major areas like Colorado’s ski resorts in offering extensive skiing with a non-stop flight from the UK.
“It will no doubt make a huge difference to our customers’ journey and rather than flying via Chicago, Dallas or other connecting airports to reach Utah, they’ll have one long-haul flight and then a short transfer,” said a Crystal Ski spokesperson.
She added: “We are just waiting to see which weekdays this new flight will operate and how the operation will work, then we can confirm what we are doing. As the airport at Salt Lake City is only just an hour’s transfer away from the slopes, it will certainly rival other US ski resorts in the future.”
Utah currently attracts only a third of Colorado’s skiers and there are plans to link all its main areas to enable it to compete with some of the US’s more extensive mountain ranges.
Salt Lake City itself provides a quirky add-on to a ski package, as it is the world headquarters of the Mormon Church and the Temple there attracts millions of visitors a year.
