Iron Range airport will get Delta jets

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Delta Airlines will begin using larger, jet-powered aircraft to service the Range Regional Airport starting Thursday.

The Chisholm-Hibbing Airport Authority on Monday announced the change, saying Delta would use a 50-passenger regional jet to replace a 34-passenger turboprop aircraft it had been using.

It’s the first jet service to Hibbing since the 1970s, said Shaun Germolus, executive director of the airport.

The bigger planes come with a trade-off, however. The larger plane will make two trips a day, morning and evening, where the smaller plane has been making three trips a day.

Delta recently re-bid the Hibbing-to-Minneapolis route with the U.S. Department of Transportation through the federally subsidized Essential Air Service Program. That program has come under criticism by some lawmakers who recently said the government should not be subsidizing air routes.

Germolus said there has been a 30 percent increase in passenger use of the airport over the past two years.

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