Delta goes head-to-head with American on new NYC-Canada route
Delta Air Lines is growing its North American network with the addition of a route-map pin.
The carrier will once again commence flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia, beginning June 7, 2024. The airline will operate two daily round-trip flights to the city from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA).
Delta Connection subsidiary Republic Airways will operate the flights using the 76-seat Embraer E175 regional jet, which features 12 first-class recliners, 20 Comfort+ seats and 44 standard economy seats.
Delta's Halifax service will be available for sale Saturday, and the new flights are timed well for connecting travelers looking to fly beyond New York to cities that Delta serves via its LaGuardia hub.
- New York-Halifax: 10:45 a.m.-1:55 p.m.
- New York-Halifax: 7:30 p.m.-10:40 p.m.
- Halifax-New York: 6 a.m.-7:10 a.m.
- Halifax-New York: 3 p.m.-4:10 p.m.
In addition to the new market, Delta will boost frequencies on its existing flight from Atlanta to Cozumel, Mexico, a carrier spokesperson confirmed to TPG. Previously, the airline planned to operate Saturday-only service on this route during the summer season, but it'll instead operate these flights on a daily, year-round basis going forward.
For Delta, Halifax is technically a market reentry. The airline last flew there in August 2019 before suspending its seasonal flights indefinitely due to the pandemic, Cirium schedules show.
Fast forward four years, and the airline is seemingly confident that these flights will succeed on a year-round basis.
That said, Delta's decision to reenter Halifax comes just two weeks after American Airlines announced that it too would reinstitute its own service between LGA and Halifax as of June 5, 2024.
American is planning just one daily round trip in the market, so Delta flyers will have more choices when flying to and from Nova Scotia.
Go long: Delta adds 4 new — and longest — LaGuardia routes
Like Delta, American hasn't flown from New York to Halifax since 2019, so this market technically represents a resumption for the Fort Worth-based carrier, too.
Going from zero to three daily flights in a given market might seem like a massive capacity increase all at once, so it'll be interesting to see how Delta (and American) fare.
While Delta is no stranger to a turf war — it's started a few over the years, especially in Seattle — the real winners in this face-off are the travelers.
With more competition, airlines will likely be incentivized to lower fares in the market — something that's especially welcoming on transborder routes that often have little competition and high fares.
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