Last December, the new thing at Tri-Cities Airport was a pair of Breeze Airways routes. Orlando International started on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. Washington Dulles followed on Monday, Dec. 15. Both flew Fridays and Mondays. A year later, one of those routes has a last day. The plane that was supposed to replace it as this year's headline hasn't arrived, and a different airline is flying Chicago instead.
If you live in Blountville, TRI is your local airport, sitting just up the road. And if your family's holiday travel ran through D.C. last year, the map has changed under you. Chicago is on it this season. Washington stays on it only through Monday, Nov. 30, so the last Dulles flights land in the middle of Thanksgiving weekend.
The nonstop map for Thanksgiving and December
Here is what the airport's own airline page lists right now, with one correction already made for the Dulles cut.
| Airline | Nonstop from TRI | Holiday-season status |
|---|---|---|
| American | Charlotte, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago O'Hare | Chicago is new in 2026 and runs daily |
| Delta | Atlanta | Listed by the airport |
| Allegiant | Orlando Sanford, St. Pete–Clearwater | Listed; check Allegiant for specific holiday dates |
| Breeze | Orlando International | Continues |
| Breeze | Washington Dulles | Last day is Monday, Nov. 30, 2026 |
| United | Chicago O'Hare | Now scheduled to begin October 2027 |
Two of those rows changed during 2026, and both shape how the holidays look from this terminal.
Washington's last weekend is Thanksgiving weekend
Breeze confirmed on Aug. 13 that it would end nonstop service between TRI and Washington Dulles less than a year after it started. A company spokesperson told WJHL that the flights "didn't meet passenger expectations" and that Nov. 30 would be the last day of service.
Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year, so here's how the dates fit together if the route keeps the Friday and Monday pattern it launched with:
- Thursday, Nov. 26: Thanksgiving Day.
- Friday, Nov. 27: the last Friday on Breeze's Dulles schedule.
- Monday, Nov. 30: the final day of TRI–Dulles flights.
The weekday dates are worked out from the schedule Breeze announced when the route launched in 2025, so check the live schedule at flybreeze.com before you plan around them. If a relative was planning to fly in from Northern Virginia for a long Thanksgiving visit, Monday the 30th is the last chance to do it on this route. For a December visit, the nonstop is gone. Any trip to Washington from TRI after that means a connection, and the airport's remaining hubs are Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and, as of this year, Chicago.
Orlando isn't affected. Breeze's Orlando International flights stay, and WJHL reported the same. With Allegiant flying to Orlando Sanford, that leaves two airlines and two Orlando-area airports for anyone heading to Florida over winter break.
The region paid to bring this route in
The Dulles route didn't come to Blountville the way most routes do. The economic development group BRIDGE spent eight months raising more than $2 million from local governments and partners to recruit Breeze to TRI, according to WJHL's coverage of the fundraising effort. That money backed a minimum-revenue guarantee, which is a promise to cover part of an airline's revenue if a new route falls short. WJHL described the guarantee as covering a two-year period. The Kingsport Times News reported that BRIDGE provided Breeze about $2 million in that funding.
The route is ending about one year into that two-year guarantee, and it hasn't been made public what happens to the rest of the money. Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy said in WJHL's follow-up story that the county would not be subsidizing seats and "won't be spending the money," and that other destinations were under consideration.
BRIDGE's statement to WJHL looked ahead:
"Breeze will continue serving Orlando from Tri-Cities Airport (TRI). BRIDGE will continue working closely with Breeze, TRI and our regional partners to grow air service and identify opportunities for additional destinations in the future."
BRIDGE executive director John Rose told the Times News that he was looking at additional routes and had been in touch with Breeze and other airlines. No replacement destination has been announced yet. For this holiday season, the money that brought Washington to TRI is now a question about where the next route goes.
Chicago is American's alone until October 2027
Chicago got onto the map with a different kind of backing. TRI was awarded $900,000 through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community Air Service Development Program, a federal grant that helped support the O'Hare launch, and local employers helped pick Chicago as a priority market, according to the airport's route announcement. American Airlines started daily nonstop service from TRI to Chicago O'Hare with an inaugural flight on Friday, May 22, 2026, flying an Embraer 170. American had announced it as a year-round, once-daily route. That makes this the first holiday season you can fly nonstop from Blountville to Chicago. For travelers bound for the upper Midwest, or for international trips through a major hub, that's a new option.
The airport had expected two airlines on that route by now. United's TRI–O'Hare service was once planned for October 2026. In July, WJHL reported it had been pushed back again after the FAA extended its schedule limits at O'Hare through October 2027. United said it hoped to start once that order expires. The airport's airline page now gives United's start date as October 2027. Until then, you'll book Chicago on American, on one flight a day.
On a once-daily route, every seat on the holiday dates comes from that one plane. If O'Hare is how you're getting home for Christmas, book early.
How busy the terminal gets in December
The airport's traffic numbers give some scale to all this. TRI recorded 494,829 enplanements, meaning passengers boarding outbound flights, for all of 2025. December 2025 alone accounted for 47,989 of them. That December figure is above July 2026's count of 45,753. From January through July 2026, the airport boarded 280,183 passengers, about 1% fewer than the same stretch of 2025.
Parking and the terminal before you fly
Parking at TRI is still priced in three tiers, according to the airport's parking page, which was updated in September 2026:
- Premium: $18 daily maximum
- Standard: $15 daily maximum
- Economy: $12 daily maximum, credit card only
Over a Wednesday-to-Monday Thanksgiving trip, the $6 gap between Premium and Economy adds up to $36. For a two-week Christmas trip, it comes to $84.
Construction is part of the background this season. In March, airport leadership told the Times News that a new parking lot was physically complete but couldn't open until its access-control system was finished. Security-checkpoint expansion was expected to begin, mostly with overnight work. The Times News also reported that renovation of the ground floor and mezzanine administrative areas would take 12 to 18 months. The status report in the Tri-Cities Airport Authority's June 12, 2026 board packet put the public-parking expansion at 90%, the parking and revenue-control system at 60%, and the checkpoint expansion at 5%. Before your trip, check flytri.com for which lots are open.
For food past the gate or before your flight, the airport's restaurant and shopping page lists Trek Point, McKellar Grill and the Mountain View Lounge, along with a gift shop.
When you're ready to book, the airlines' own sites have the real holiday schedules. That matters most for Allegiant, since the airport's page lists its Orlando Sanford and St. Pete–Clearwater routes without days of the week. Check allegiantair.com for the dates you need.
We keep an eye on what's changing around Blountville and the Tri-Cities, and that includes the airport our relocating clients fly into for their first look at a house. If family is flying in this holiday season and a move to East Tennessee comes up over dinner, The Lusk Team would love to help them see the area while they're here. Let's Connect.
