When it comes to surfboards, size does matter…of the aircraft, that is.
Gary Broughton, operations manager at Wilmington International Airport, said only some aircraft flying into the Port City can accept surfboards.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which flies to Atlanta as the Delta Connection, operates 50-passenger regional jets. Those planes have cargo holds that are too small to handle surfboards.
So if you are flying Delta, you will need to travel to Raleigh-Durham International Airport to travel with your surfboard.
That leaves US Airways as the only scheduled carrier into Wilmington that will let you check-in surfboards — and only on certain flights where bigger jets are flying.
Basically, if the plane’s engines are below the wing, it’s big enough to handle surfboards.
Those planes operate on some flights to Charlotte and Philadelphia.
Then there’s the cost of flying with your favorite board.
Broughton said US Airways will charge passengers $100 per board, not per surfboard bag.
So if there are five boards in one bag, that’s a $500 charge on top of the ticket price.
Since policies and costs can and often do change, airport officials recommend passengers check with their airlines — preferably when making their reservations – before heading to the airport with a surfboard.
Date posted: August 16, 2010
User-contributed question by:
Ann
That’s too bad. Delta & USAirways in ILM are losing out on A LOT of business from traveling surfers that have to go to Raleigh and Myrtle Beach. I make it a point to fly Spirit out of Myrtle Beach now. They only charge you for the board bag, not each board in the bag. That’s ridiculous that USAir charges for each board…Do they charge for each golf club in a golf bag?!?
There’s not quite the same weight increase per golf club as per surfboard – it seems to me that it would be fair to charge by weight, not count of bags or boards.