Update (Jan. 4, 2023): Flights will begin Jan. 9, 2023. It appears that flight prices are currently about $238-$288 for a round-trip ticket, depending on how far out the trip is. Flights are scheduled twice daily, one around 5:30 a.m. and one around 1:45 p.m. Both trips take about 90 minutes.
Original story (Nov. 2, 2022):
ITHACA, N.Y.—The Ithaca-Tompkins International Airport has added new daily flights to New York City, with two daily flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport starting Jan. 9, 2023.
The discussion came up during Tuesday’s Tompkins County Legislature, prompted by a question from Legislator Mike Sigler, though the introduction of the new flights was first reported last week. The flights will be offered through Delta Airlines.
Sigler asked if the addition of the JFK service meant that the service to Detroit would be ending, which Executive Director Roxan Noble confirmed.
Noble said the airport had received plenty of complaints about not having an early flight to Detroit, since the only Detroit route is scheduled for the afternoon. But adding a route to New York City had been frequently requested as well, and Noble said it offers many of the same access opportunities that Detroit had.
“I think that was our only option,” Noble said of trading the Detroit route for NYC. “There are many western connections, you can still get to many of them, even more than you did through Detroit. The early morning flights are great for the domestic connections, the afternoon flights are great for the international connections.”
It is unclear when exactly the Detroit service will end. A round-trip ticket between JFK and Ithaca for mid-January is currently listed at $238 on Expedia, and it appears flights will be scheduled once in the late-morning and once at night.
Currently, the airport has three regularly scheduled daily flights, from Ithaca to Detroit and two between Ithaca and Newark, NJ, provided by Delta Airlines and United Airlines. Officials have been searching for more routes since American Airlines surprisingly announced it was ending service in Ithaca over the summer, drawing reactions from Noble and Tompkins County officials.
There could be more routes on the way as well, as Noble has talked about adding routes to warm-weather destinations in the southeastern United States.