A group of leaders pushing for direct Delta Air Lines flights from Salt Lake City to Paris took a direct approach to the matter Monday, meeting with Delta's top executive at the company's Atlanta headquarters.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. led a contingent that spoke to Delta Chief Executive Officer Gerald Grinstein and three other Delta representatives about Utah's commitment to making the flights a reality.

"It was just an ability for them to tell us how they do their planning, their routing, what it takes to add a flight, and we went around the table and talked about the support coming in from the community and listened to what each other's side of the equation would be," said Leigh von der Esch, executive director of the Utah Office of Tourism.

"There will be more work for us to do, but we're cautiously optimistic that we will eventually get what we want — if not to Paris, certainly to Europe."

Others in the Utah group were Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon; Roy Williams, executive director of the Salt Lake City International Airport; Barbara Gann, spokeswoman for the airport; Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen; and businessman, Salt Lake City mayoral candidate and former City Councilman Keith Christensen.

The airport, the Utah Board of Travel Development and the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau have committed to use a total of $650,000 to develop a marketing plan for possible Delta direct flights between Salt Lake City and Paris. The airline has said the flights could become reality as soon as next summer but has added that marketing assistance and other assurances are needed to make sure the flights would be profitable.

"We need to move forward in building the French product, because for an airline, they want to know how many you're sending out from your airport but also how many are interested in coming back the other way. We've been doing that with representation in Germany and the U.K., but we haven't had a marketing effort going on in France, and I think we need to show some commitment to that going forward," von der Esch said.

Delta, she said, will look at how many tickets can be sold and how strong the market will be. "The (Salt Lake) chamber of commerce did a great job in calling in letters of support, but we know we didn't hear from every company that is capable of putting people on that flight. I think we need to do more research on what the need is.

"Delta will do their due diligence as well, but we certainly know that we have companies and corporations and what kind of partnerships we can put together to show that that would, in fact, be a terrific thing for the state if we can get this international direct flight."

The Wall Street Journal last week noted that international air travel has become a hotbed of competition for airlines because of potentially high profits. The Journal said the number of trans-Atlantic passengers is expected to be about 54 million this year, up about 29 percent from four years ago. Delta has added 12 new routes across the Atlantic since March and has three more scheduled this fall.

"They've got other international routes they're working on and all the work attending to that," von der Esch said. "We're trying to do our part. We're very optimistic and excited about it. In the meantime, we've got work to do in the tourism office getting this French product up and going."

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