DL drop EDI-ATL (introduce EDI-JFK)

It’s the hub issue again. From ATL Delta could serve both Florida and the Californian markets, as well as most of the USA. However Los Angeles has limited hub scope for European travellers as you’d have to fly west and then fly back on yourself (leading to long journey times) to access most of the USA. ATL wasn’t the best choice because it missed the important eastern seaboard (New York, Washington, Boston etc etc), but at the time of starting, DL’s hub at JFK was in a level of infantcy, where as ATL was mature and offered more connections. DL have put significant effort into their hub at JFK over the last year, and consequently they can offer many more connections through there.

Of course. The hub issue completely escaped my notice. I was thinking what is there in Atlanta for people to visit. I remember the old joke about Atlanta as a major hub when someone said that if you die and go to Heaven you will have to change planes at Atlanta first to get there. 😀

Atlanta always struck me as a peculiar destination to serve from Edi, I would have thought Los Angeles or one of the Florida airports would attract more custom both ways.

It’s the hub issue again. From ATL Delta could serve both Florida and the Californian markets, as well as most of the USA. However Los Angeles has limited hub scope for European travellers as you’d have to fly west and then fly back on yourself (leading to long journey times) to access most of the USA. ATL wasn’t the best choice because it missed the important eastern seaboard (New York, Washington, Boston etc etc), but at the time of starting, DL’s hub at JFK was in a level of infantcy, where as ATL was mature and offered more connections. DL have put significant effort into their hub at JFK over the last year, and consequently they can offer many more connections through there.

Atlanta always struck me as a peculiar destination to serve from Edi, I would have thought Los Angeles or one of the Florida airports would attract more custom both ways.

Was always going to happen.

At least from DUB DL do better on their JFK service than ATL.

Reported in one of the Scottish rags that DL are going to pull the EDI-ATL service on October 27th, and replace it with a 757 service to JFK in close competition with Continental. I fear a bloodbath here, 3 flights a day to NY from EDI is crazy, The ATL route wasn’t exactly their best route, but, i feel they should have downsized the service maybe 4/5 a week 757, or, try another route, but taking on COA will be a disaster for them imo.

Personally I think it makes total sense. JFK is an increasingly important hub for DL and therefore they can serve the same market through there than they can through ATL (most of the traffic currently wil be onward bound), but they can cover a better area providing services to the eastern seaboard, which they cannot do through ATL. Again, CO’s services are hub based primarily. Most of the current ATL traffic can be transferred to JFK, but will be enhanced by higher yield direct traffic. Furthermore ATL is payload restricted (carrying little freight) and so JFK can carry more freight for them, thereby making it more sustainable.

It will be interesting to see whather CO can sustain their two services, but I suspect they will. EDI is a strong product, particularly for American tourists, which is why DL decided to operate the route with payload restrictions (because they could extract more money from American tourists to offset the loss of cargo revenue). DL will simply be able to provide more inbound connections through JFK.

4/5 services per week is unviable for a hub operation, so again it makes more sense to operate a higher frequency of service from JFK.