Delta’s Shortest Route in NYC Out of 3 Cutoff Routes, 1 Added in Latest Update

Delta Air Lines is making some notable network changes at its New York hubs.

First is the airline cancel its shortest route from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), first seen on Cirium’s schedule and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.

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

Delta’s regional affiliate Endeavor Air launched the service in 2022 with up to three flights per day. It was downgraded to daily service last June and is now being phased out entirely.

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When it first launched, Delta’s New York to Hartford route was the shortest route at LaGuardia. That title has since been passed to American Airlines’ New York to Philadelphia route, which is just 95 miles.

While Delta’s flight offers the fastest commercial option for passengers traveling from Hartford to New York City, some aviation observers consider it a “seat grab.”

LaGuardia is a airport with controlled slotThis means that the number of daily departures and arrivals is limited through slots. These slots are usually allocated on a use-it-or-lose-it basis, so airlines must use all the slots in their portfolio or risk losing them to competitors.

During peak demand periods, airline schedules are optimized to efficiently utilize all slots in their portfolio. However, during periods of weaker demand, airlines sometimes look for cheaper regional flights to “slot up.” Rather than sell or give up a valuable slot, airlines will fill their schedules during the weaker demand season with cheaper regional operations to utilize all of their slots.

Although Delta initially thought it would be profitable to fill a 70-seat plane multiple times a day between New York and Hartford, that experiment appears to have failed.

Now that the airline has freed up some of the slots originally allocated to the Hartford route, Delta will launch service between LGA and Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) starting October 7.

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

Delta’s last flight between LaGuardia and Chattanooga was in March 2020, so this is technically a resumption of operations for the airline.

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

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

Except for a brief pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, Delta’s New York-Montreal route has been operating continuously since 2006. Meanwhile, Cirium’s schedule shows the New York-Baltimore route has been operating for more than two decades.

Baltimore service offers travelers in the region hundreds of one-stop itineraries connecting through New York. JFK is Delta’s primary transatlantic gateway, so travelers based in Baltimore can 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 airport. Delta has not submitted any new routes (yet) from JFK to use the slots being freed up by cutting these two routes.

It remains to be seen whether Delta will add new routes or increase frequencies on existing routes to take advantage of these timeslots. As always, stay tuned to TPG for the latest information.

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