Delta's shortest NYC route among 3 cuts, 1 add in latest update

Delta Air Lines is making several noteworthy network changes at its New York hubs.

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

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

Delta's regional affiliate Endeavor Air launched this service in 2022 with up to three daily flights. It was downgraded to daily service last June, and now it's being cut entirely.

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When it launched, Delta's New York-to-Hartford route was the shortest at LaGuardia. That title has since been transferred to American Airlines' New York-to-Philadelphia route, which clocks in at just 95 miles.

While Delta's flight provided the fastest commercial option for travelers getting from Hartford to New York City, several aviation observers considered it to be "slot squatting."

LaGuardia is a slot-controlled airport, meaning the number of daily departures and arrivals is capped via slots. These slots are typically distributed on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, so airlines must use all the slots in their portfolio or risk losing them to a competitor.

During peak periods, airline schedules are optimized to efficiently use all the slots in their portfolio. However, during weaker demand periods, airlines sometimes find lower-cost regional flights to "slot squat." Instead of selling or abandoning a valuable slot, carriers will fill their schedule during weaker demand seasons with cheaper regional operations to utilize all their slots.

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

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

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

Delta last flew between LaGuardia and Chattanooga in March 2020, so this technically represents a resumption 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 scrap 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 New York-to-Montreal route has been operated consecutively since 2006. Meanwhile, the service between New York and Baltimore has been operated for more than two decades, Cirium schedules show.

The Baltimore service provided travelers in the region with hundreds of one-stop itineraries connecting via New York. JFK is Delta's main transatlantic gateway, so travelers based in Baltimore could take a short flight to New York and then connect to Delta and SkyTeam partner service to Europe and beyond.

Like LGA, JFK is a slot-controlled airport. Delta didn't file any new routes (yet) from JFK to use the slots that are being freed by cutting these two routes.

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

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