To Paris, nonstop

Feel like seeing that Mona Lisa in person? Crave a really fresh croissant? Want to replace the beret you lost at last year’s State Fair?

Raleigh Durham International Airport has just the ticket, a nonstop ticket to Paris. Delta Airlines will be offering daily nonstop flights to the City of Light beginning in May. American Airlines has had nonstop flights to London since 1994.

For a sort of middle-sized airport, having two nonstop European flights daily is huge. Mike Landguth, president and CEO of the RDU Airport Authority, noted last week that the additional flight “says a lot about our region and its economic vitality.” Said Bob Geolas, president and CEO of the Research Triangle Park Foundation, “This additional flight to Europe is just what we need to help connect our industries, retain job growth, bring in new opportunities.” Geolas was one of those who helped land the flight, so to speak.

Indeed, with the Triangle’s universities and high-tech businesses doing commerce worldwide, additional European flights will make it easier to expand those businesses in the global marketplace, and that’s the greatest benefit of this flight. More jobs are likely to come to this region as well. Businesses in Europe looking to expand and businesses in the United States looking to expand look first to whether their executives and sales people will be able to move quickly to the opportunities they need to pursue, across the ocean.

In the Research Triangle, the answer now is “oui.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 2:47 PM with the headline "To Paris, nonstop."