THE EX FILES I
Falling Traffic Means International Flight Cuts: The unprecedented decline in traffic on international flights, especially in the premium classes, is leading to bigreductions in overseas flying.
- After previously announcing a 10 percent cut, most of which would be frequency reductions, Delta Air Lines says it will trim 5 percent more than originally planned. And the larger cuts mean routes will disappear entirely. What’ll get the chop? Two international routes, to London/Gatwick and Frankfurt, from Delta’s shrinking Cincinnati hub. Nonstops to Seoul and Shanghai from Atlanta, Delta’s largest hub. And nonstops to Edinburgh from Delta’s international nexus at New York/Kennedy Airport.
- British Airways will also be in a slashing mode. Gone in October will be the daily nonstop between Kennedy and London/Gatwick, a route that BA launched last October. Also going will be at least one of BA’s seven daily Kennedy-London/Heathrow flights.
- Aer Lingus, which is suffering from the collapsed economy in Ireland as well as the recession in the United States, is chopping about 25 percent of its transatlantic capacity. It will kill its Chicago-Shannon flights on September 1, then drop its San Francisco-Dublin and Washington/Dulles-Dublin flights on October 25.
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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.
