Delta Air Lines today said it would expand its New York footprint with new or increased service to 28 domestic and international cities through mid-September. For its international expansion, the carrier is launching only two new routes from New York's John F. Kennedy—Copenhagen and Stockholm at the end of this month—while the rest of the growth comes from upgauging aircraft, shifting seasonal service to year-round or adding frequencies. On the domestic front, Delta is launching LaGuardia service to St. Louis and Nashville, Tenn., and JFK service to San Antonio, while upping frequencies to 10 other U.S. and Canadian cities.
Delta, which could gain more than 100 slot pairs at LaGuardia pending an appeal of a Transportation Department decision on a slot swap with US Airways
(BTNonline, May 5), told
BTN that today's planned expansion "is within the portfolio of slots currently available to us and is not related to the pending slot transaction with US Airways." A spokesperson added that the route plans from New York "do not impact previously announced capacity guidance." The carrier's most recent guidance showed available seat miles growing by no more than 1 percent for domestic and 2 percent for international this quarter.
The carrier said it is making a play for corporate business through its expansion from New York to U.S. and international business markets. "We continue to see corporate travel demand improve across our network, particularly in New York," Delta senior vice president of New York Gail Grimmett said in a statement today. "With the economy rebounding, our New York customers can look forward to an expansion of flights to both domestic and international destinations throughout the remainder of 2010 as we respond to increased demand."
Among its international growth plans, Delta on Sept. 19 will add one additional daily London Heathrow flight from JFK, taking its service between the airports to three daily roundtrips. The carrier next month plans to upgauge aircraft from JFK to Athens, Istanbul, Milan, Moscow, Nice, Tel Aviv and Tokyo-Narita to provide more seats and shift Cairo service to daily from five times a week. Last week, Delta reinstated year-round service to Shannon and Manchester, while taking its Brussels service daily from five weekly flights. Delta also reinstated a third daily service to Amsterdam to drive connections with its joint venture partner Air France-KLM in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
In addition to the launch of new service from LaGuardia to St. Louis and Nashville, Tenn., Delta is expanding frequencies from the airport to Norfolk, Va., Richmond, Va., and Kansas City, Mo., while launching service from JFK to San Antonio and increasing frequencies from the airport to Cleveland, Montreal, Charlotte, N.C, Toronto, Baltimore and Richmond, Va. Delta's New York expansion also includes previously announced plans to launch 11 times a day shuttle service from LaGuardia's Marine Air Terminal to Chicago O'Hare, replacing the carrier's service to Chicago Midway International Airport beginning June 10.
The carrier also said it is expanding first class service to small and medium domestic markets on both regional jets and mainline aircraft, as well as continuing its ongoing rollout of its new international lie-flat seats.