Starting in June, the Lincoln Airport will have another option for people who want to travel west.

Delta Air Lines announced late Friday it will start a once-daily flight to Salt Lake City on June 4.

The announcement was welcome news at the airport, which lost Allegiant Air flights to Las Vegas in September and a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit at the beginning of this year.

Airport Executive Director John Wood said he was “pleasantly surprised” by Delta’s decision.

“Given the current economic climate and the fact that airlines, including Delta, are reducing capacity, it is very exciting that Lincoln made the cut for Delta to allocate an airplane to start this new service,” he said.

People can start making reservations for the flights today. The flights will be on a 50-seat regional jet and —as of now — are scheduled to arrive in Lincoln at 4:59 p.m. and depart at 5:24 p.m. each day.

Wood said the airport has worked with Delta for more than a year to bring additional service to Lincoln.

The cause likely was helped by Delta’s merger, finalized late last year, with Northwest, which already serves Lincoln with flights to Minneapolis.

“It’s great that Delta Air Lines has shown confidence in the community by adding a Salt Lake City flight,” Chris Hove, chairman of the Lincoln Airport Authority, said in a statement.

Lincoln joins eight other cities whose new service to Salt Lake City, also effective June 4, was announced nearly a month ago.

The airline has also increased the number of flights to Salt Lake City from a number of other destinations already being served.

Bob Cortelyou, Delta’s senior vice president of network planning, told the Salt Lake Tribune last month the added flights are meant to coincide with Delta’s new direct flights from Salt Lake City to Tokyo, which will begin June 3.

Wood said the direct flights to Tokyo will be a plus for Lincoln businesses with Japanese ties, such as Kawasaki.

He said Delta will receive financial help from the airport to defray marketing costs and will have landing fees waived for a year —standard incentives for any airline that starts new service.

Delta has not committed to keeping the flight in place for any specific period of time, Wood said.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.