Delta downsizes N.Y.-D.C. route to small jets
— -- Delta Air Lines next month will begin phasing out a business-travel tradition on one of the nation's most famous air routes by switching to small jets that will seat about half as many passengers each flight.
By March, the Delta Shuttle's 15 daily round-trip flights between New York's LaGuardia and Washington's Reagan National airport will be on 76-seat Embraer jets instead of 148-seat MD-88 jets used now.
Delta will continue to fly MD-88s on the New York-Boston shuttle route. It also offers 15 daily round trips there. The change will leave US Airways as the only airline still flying large jets on the historic New York-Washington "shuttle" route that has catered to political and financial power brokers for nearly 50 years.
Delta, the world's largest carrier following its acquisition of Northwest Airlines, also said Monday it is offering early retirement and early severance programs to reduce its workforce of about 75,000. The reductions are tied to its plan to cut 2009 capacity 6% to 8% in response to weak demand. Delta did not say how many jobs it wants to eliminate.
Delta has been flying the New York-Washington and New York-Boston shuttle routes since acquiring the former Pan Am Shuttle in 1991. Until earlier this year it had done so with all large jets.
Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said the shift to the smaller E-175s will better match the carrier's capacity with demand. Though not as long as Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, E-175s' fuselages are nearly as large around as those single-aisle jets, and provide comparable levels of comfort.
Talton did not provide current or historical demand figures.
"These decisions … probably do mean that demand is down," on the shuttle routes, says Bob Harrell, whose firm Harrell Associates tracks business-travel prices.
"The New York-area airports have the longest (security screening) delay times," he says. "The airports in Washington and New York are among the most delay-prone.
"So a lot of people are driving it now," he says. "They're doing videoconferencing. And they're certainly taking the (Amtrak) train."
Higher fares may also be a factor. The walk-up coach fare for a Delta flight between LaGuardia and Reagan is $339.50 one way, not counting bag fees, while the first-class fare is $510.50 one way. The lowest advance-purchase fare is $64 one way.
