The Beginning of the End for DAL at CVG?

[Furloughed80]

November 12, 2008, 1:54 pm
Delta’s Cincinnati Flight-Cut Plan: How do You Define Hub?

Posted by Matt Phillips
The Cincinnati Enquirer had a story this morning on Delta’s planned cuts at the region’s main airport. Here are the key chunks:

Delta Air Lines plans to cut 12 percent of its flying out of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in January, but says it is restructuring the hub here to make it more profitable and therefore sustainable though at least next year.
Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s executive vice president charged with meshing Delta’s network with that of its new merger acquisition Northwest Airlines, said in an interview that the airline is committed to keeping a hub here through at least 2009.
“We really wanted to keep the hub there because of its location, layout and the great facilities, but it took us awhile to figure out how to do it,” Hauenstein said. “So Delta is now reaffirming its commitment to the Cincinnati hub through the summer season of next year and then we’ll take another barometer reading on how the economy is doing.
“This is the foundation to build upon, and I think the biggest (profit) improvement in all of Delta next year is going to be Cincinnati.”
The new plan calls for ending service to only one city and trimming about 40 flights a day at CVG. The 263 flights remaining flights, however, will be bunched more closely together as the airline synchronizes its schedules among its other six hubs nationally.
​

Delta’s decision to trim the number of flights at Cincinnati will likely result in higher fares at the airport, which — as we’ve written about before — are some of the nation’s highest, on average. But beyond that, the move to cut capacity also sheds some light on how Delta’s merger with Northwest might affect established hub-and-spoke operations at the formerly separate carriers. Delta officials have said they won’t close hubs after the integration with Northwest. But as the Enquirer’s story makes clear, that doesn’t preclude Delta from making changes to its current network.
Also, it’s worth noting that “hub” is largely a term of art used by the carriers to describe their own operations. There isn’t really a hard-and-fast definition of “hub” based on the number of flights into or out of an airport, or other objective metrics.
Photo: Getty Images

......................................

 

[ACL65PILOT]

Maybe. There is really no need for major lift. A few mainline jets will take care of the profitable P and G contract. DTW is less than 500 miles away and has an awesome facility.

 

[maxblast72]

Seems awfully similiar to USAirways slow systematic dismantling of the Pittsburgh hub.

 

[EMBpilot]

Balancing CVG operations to increase profitability
November 12, 2008



We’re planning some additional restructuring to our Cincinnati hub to complement its schedules with operations our other hubs and to improve the station’s overall profitability. We’ll reduce the current seven-bank structure to five starting in January and eliminate some unprofitable late-evening flights.
The changes will improve connecting opportunities and provide 28% more seats per bank compared to the current schedule. There will be some reduction of frequencies, primarily in Delta Connection markets with low local passenger demand. Mainline flying will remain essentially the same, and no changes are planned for CVG’s international schedules.
“We’re taking these steps to strengthen the CVG hub so it is complementary with the rest of the hubs in our network,” said Glen Hauenstein, e.v.p.-Network Planning and Revenue Management. “We remain committed to maintaining all of our hubs as they each will play an important role in our combined network.”

 

[Superpilot92]

Here is an internal update put out today about CVG.








Balancing CVG operations to increase profitability

We’re planning some additional restructuring to our Cincinnati hub to complement its schedules with operations at our other hubs and to improve the station’s overall profitability.
We’ll reduce the current seven-bank structure to five, starting in January, and eliminate some unprofitable late-evening flights.
There will be some reduction of frequencies, primarily in Delta Connection markets with low local passenger demand. Mainline flying will remain essentially the same, and no changes are planned for CVG’s international schedules.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

They did the same thing in DFW before the rolled up the streets too. It is appearing like it is the beginning of the end.

 

[~~~^~~~]

ACL,

There is a big difference between CVG and DFW. Delta says CVG is profitable.

IMHO Comair was doing fine before they were bought. Why not let them do their best with "at risk" flying? Roll the clock back and party like its 1999?

 

[ACL65PILOT]

You know I agree, but remember that they would not be cutting mainline flying if it was in the black.

I would love to see OH do "at risk flying," but it is still Delta's balance sheet. That is the problem.

 

[~~~^~~~]

I would love to see OH do "at risk flying," but it is still Delta's balance sheet. That is the problem.

It has always been my thought to stop giving premium flying to Republic (and any they don't have to give to SkyWest) and about a week after the announcement of Comair's rapid growth, do an IPO and let the hedge funds gobble them up.

They bought Chrysler. I'd rather own Comair.

 

[NuGuy]

They did the same thing in DFW before the rolled up the streets too. It is appearing like it is the beginning of the end.

Heyas ACL,

They may be taking a lesson from MEM.

I see where CVG has 7 banks, to be reduced to 5. The most MEM ever had in the last 10 years was 4 (2000ish), and it's been 3 most of that time (hub-hub flights more often). Outside that time, you could roll a bowling ball down the concorse and not hit anyone or, gasp, get your BBQ without standing in line.

You can dial a hub back quite a bit and still keep the wolves out.

Nu

 

[ACL65PILOT]

I hope so, because there is a lot of corporate outfits out of CVG that use us. It is a great facility with great people!

 

[Networ-King]

Delta unveils new 2009 flights with eye toward integrating NWA

Thursday November 13, 2008 Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, which closed their merger last month, said they are aiming to integrate their flight schedule by next summer as DL unveiled new flights intended to increase connectivity between the two networks and expand its global reach.
DL plans to launch 15 new international routes in June to coincide with the network integration. It will start daily 777-200ER flights between JFK and Tokyo Narita as well as five-times-weekly A330-200 Salt Lake City-NRT and daily 757-200 NRT-Ho Chi Min services. It will add a second-daily Atlanta-NRT flight on May 4.
"We want to plug in Delta's massive access on the East Coast to Northwest's transpacific strength," Executive VP-Network Planning and Revenue Management Glen Hauenstein said. He told reporters in a conference call yesterday that the new DL intends to keep all current DL and NWA hubs operating as hubs, creating "a stronger platform to take customers from all over the United States to destinations around the globe" (ATWOnline, Oct. 31).
New DL flights to Africa from ATL will go to Johannesburg (daily on a 777-200LR), Nairobi (four-times-weekly on a 767-300ER), Monrovia (weekly on a 757-200ER), Abuja (twice-weekly on a 757-200ER), Luanda (twice-weekly on a 757-200ER), Malabo (weekly on a 757-200ER) and Cape Town (thrice-weekly on a 767-300ER). It also will launch five-times-weekly JFK-Lagos 767-300ER flights.
New DL flights from JFK to Europe will comprise Gothenburg Landvetter (four-times-weekly on a 757-200ER), Prague (thrice-weekly on a 767-300), Valencia (four-times-weekly on a 757-200ER) and Zurich (daily for the summer season aboard 757-200ERs). It will add a second four-times-weekly flight between JFK and Tel Aviv on June 30.
Additionally, NWA revealed yesterday that it will drop Detroit-Paris Charles de Gaulle flights in January and DTW-Osaka Kansai on Feb. 28. Hauenstein noted that SkyTeam partner Air France operates DTW-CDG and that DL will launch NRT-Osaka flights next year.
It said starting in January it will boost "hub-to-hub" capacity by 14.5% by operating both additional flights and larger aircraft between Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, New York JFK and Memphis. It plans to replace "select regional jet flights with mainline equipment" on flights from ATL to MEM, MSP, CVG and DTW. It also will add a third-daily SLC-DTW flight and launch daily SLC-MEM and JFK-MEM services.





Looks like mother d's got her sh!t together and actually doing the right thing. Good luck to you guys and northwest.