Delta short NYC route between 3 cuts, add 1 in latest update

Delta Air Lines is making several significant network changes at its New York destinations.

The first is that the airline is scrapping its shortest route from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), as first seen in Cirium’s plans and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.

The 101-mile route from LGA to Bradley International Airport (BDL) near Hartford, Connecticut, will officially end on Oct. 6.

Delta’s regional subsidiary Endeavor Air launched the service in 2022 with up to three daily flights. It was reduced to a daily service last June, and has now been discontinued entirely.

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At launch, Delta’s route from New York to Hartford was the shortest at LaGuardia. That title has been transferred to American Airlines’ New York-to-Philadelphia route, which covers just 95 miles.

Although Delta’s flight offered the fastest business option for travelers from Hartford to New York City, several airline observers considered it “swinging.”

LaGuardia is a slot-controlled airport, meaning the number of daily departures and arrivals is determined by slots. These slots are usually distributed on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, so airlines must use all the slots in their portfolio or risk losing out to competitors.

During peak periods, airlines’ schedules are optimized to make the most of all slots in their portfolio. However, during periods of weak demand, airlines sometimes find low-cost regional flights that go into “slot squat.” Instead of selling or giving up a valuable slot, carriers will fill their schedule during periods of weak demand with cheaper regional operations to use up all their slots.

While Delta may have originally thought there would be enough travelers to profitably fill the 70-seat flight multiple times a day between New York and Hartford, that assessment appears to have failed.

Now that the airline has freed up some slots originally assigned to the Hartford route, Delta will introduce service between LGA and Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) beginning Oct. 7.

Endeavor Air will serve the 734-mile route with up to five weekly flights on the 76-seat CRJ-900 regional jet.

Delta last flew between LaGuardia and Chattanooga in March 2020, so this represents a relaunch for the airline.

In addition to the changes at LGA, Delta is cutting two regional routes from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).

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Delta will eliminate service from JFK to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) on Oct. 26.

Except for a short break during the coronavirus pandemic, Delta’s route from New York to Montreal has been operated continuously since 2006. Meanwhile, service between New York and Baltimore has been in operation for more than two decades, Cirium schedules show.

The Baltimore service provided travelers in the region with hundreds of one-way routes connecting through New York. JFK is Delta’s main transatlantic gateway, so Baltimore-based travelers can take a short flight to New York and connect on Delta and SkyTeam partner service to Europe and beyond.

Like LGA, JFK is a slot-controlled airport. Delta has not added any new routes (yet) from JFK to use the slots freed up by cutting these two routes.

It remains to be seen whether Delta will add new routes or increase frequencies on existing ones to make use of the slots. As always, stay tuned to TPG for the latest.

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