When Delta Flight 188 lifts off for Paris tomorrow evening, there may be no happier guy on the plane than Randall Dearth, the Lanxess Corp. chief executive officer and president.

With that takeoff, and hopefully many more to come, Mr. Dearth will be leaving behind the grind, the delays, the frustrations of trying to make connections through Chicago or Newark, N.J., or other chaotic and clogged East Coast airports to get to Europe.

"It's been hell," he said.

But no more. For the first time since November 2004, nonstop transatlantic service will return to Pittsburgh International Airport with the launch of the Delta flight, backed by up to $9 million in potential subsidies.

For employees at Lanxess, whose parent company is headquartered in Germany, and many other business travelers with overseas connections, it couldn't come soon enough.

At Lanxess, about 400 people each year either travel from Pittsburgh to Germany or vice versa. In the past, that has meant trips through Chicago or the East Coast to get overseas or to get into Pittsburgh.

And with them has come congestion, delays, lost productivity, and, every once in awhile, not getting there at all. Mr. Dearth said there have been several times when Lanxess was expecting visitors from Europe who never made it.

In all, the company estimates it will save more than $250,000 a year through better productivity with nonstop service from Pittsburgh. Mr. Dearth said Lanxess lost about a day and a half of productivity from employees who had to make connections to get to Europe.

"This flight, for us, is huge," he said.

He'll get no argument from John Friel, Medrad CEO and president. Last year, employees in his company, an affiliate of Bayer AG, made 381 round trips to Europe, and 137 so far this year.

Mr. Friel said making connections adds at least two to three hours to the flight under the best of circumstances. On flights home, travelers may not get back to Pittsburgh until late evening. Now the Delta flight will leave Paris about 11 a..m. and get into Pittsburgh about 2 p.m.

But as important as the flight is to companies with business overseas, it may be of even greater value to the region as a whole, Mr. Friel said.

In the past, he has been involved in efforts to attract European businesses to Pittsburgh. He said having a direct connection to and from Europe has been an "extremely important" factor in such conversations.

"We make ourselves less attractive as a region to attract business without a gateway to Europe," he said.

Peter Kalis, chairman of the K&L Gates law firm, agreed. "It's abundantly important that businesses and personnel in venues around the world believe that Pittsburgh and the region are significant enough to justify this sort of nonstop connection to Western Europe even in a down economy," he said.

The stakes are high enough that the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the state have pledged up to $9 million in potential subsidies to Delta over the next two years if the Paris service falls short of agreed-to revenue targets.

One aviation consultant, Darryl Jenkins, questioned whether the potential subsidies were worth it, saying it was a lot of money and a "very good deal for Delta.

"I'm very skeptical of subsidies in general. I would only offer a subsidy during good times and only for a very short period," he said.

But Kenneth J. Zapinski, Allegheny Conference senior vice president of the transportation and infrastructure program, believes the deal is warranted.

He saw potential subsidies as the "determining factor" in Delta sticking with the flight even as it postponed new service between Raleigh and Paris and dropped service between Hartford and Amsterdam.

Mr. Kalis, an Allegheny Conference board member, defended the subsidies, saying they show that the business leaders who make up the organization and contribute to it are "willing to put their money where their mouth is."

If revenue goals fall short of expectations, Delta has the right to drop the flights after two years. On that one point, there is no disagreement -- if the region and the businesses that have coveted the service don't support it, the flight will be gone.

"I think the airline industry will be viewing this as a test, both the Delta service to Europe and the new United service to Los Angeles and San Francisco, Mr. Zapinski said.

"There's no doubt in my mind that what persuaded United to take a business risk to start new nonstop service was Delta's decision to take an even bigger risk to start nonstop service to Europe in June."

Toward that end, Lanxess, K&L Gates and Medrad, whose leaders are conference board members, have adopted conference-recommended travel policies that require employees doing business in Europe to take the Delta flight unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.

"This is a definite business plus for the region, and we all support it," Mr. Dearth said.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority had planned a celebration tomorrow to kick off the service but canceled it yesterday in the aftermath of the disappearance of an Air France jet over the Atlantic Ocean. The plane was carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.