Commercial flights resume at the Las Cruces International Airport

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- -- The first commercial flight in 18 years took off from the Las Cruces airport Monday morning en route to Albuquerque.

Las Cruces airport administrator Andy Hume told ABC-7 things went very smoothly. He said the first flight from Albuquerque arrived at the Las Cruces airport at 8:15 a.m. with 5 passengers onboard. Hume said the next flight took off to Albuquerque about 30 minutes with passengers onboard.

Hume said on Mondays and Fridays, there would be 2 round trips, with just one round trip from Las Cruces to Albuquerque every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

We learned that most people flying this route are people who go to Albuquerque routinely for business, as well as students attending New Mexico State University. Hume said they all expressed how happy they were not to spend hours driving between the two cities.