AC

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%...