Senator Warner and Virginia colleague Jim Webb are working to preserve direct airline flights that connect Roanoke and New York City.

There are currently three daily round-trip flights between New York and Roanoke that serve an estimated 25,000 passengers each year.  For more than 20 years, US Airways has offered non-stop flights between New York's LaGuardia Airport and Roanoke Regional. 

But US Airways wants to decrease service to New York, and increase it in Washington, D.C. Delta Airlines wants to pick up the New York City slots that US Airways would drop, but Delta has indicated it would not use them to serve Roanoke.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has granted the two airlines tentative approval for the swap.

But in a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Senators Warner and Webb wrote: "Losing flight operations at Roanoke... would have detrimental economic consequences."

You can read their letter to Secretary LaHood below: