Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines Delay or Cut Flight Service To China and Europe
January 4, 2009 | Air Travel, Airline Flight, Airline Service, Airlines Companies
Delta Air Lines and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary are delaying or cutting some flying to China and Europe because of poor market conditions, but the reductions haven’t touched Salt Lake City so far.
Last month, Northwest told the Department of Transportation that it was seeking to delay proposed daily service between Seattle and Beijing by a year and putting off the March start of Detroit-Shanghai service by more than two months.
Northwest also is temporarily reducing service between Portland, Ore., and Amsterdam by one day a week.
Delta is postponing new service between Raleigh/Durham, N.C., and Paris by a year. Flights were to have started in June.
But in Salt Lake City, where Delta’s westernmost airport hub is located, plans to begin five-times-a-week, nonstop flights to Tokyo in June are going forward. And the airline is still flying its daily nonstop route to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris.
“We haven’t announced any plans to modify our international flights at this time,” Delta spokesman Anthony Black said Wednesday.
Northwest said the global economic slowdown is having a particular impact on demand for U.S.-China air transportation. Bookings declined dramatically after the close of the Summer Olympics and advance bookings for March are off nearly 30 percent, Northwest said in a filing with the Transportation Department.
Northwest will ratchet back its service between Portland and Amsterdam from five flights per week to four, beginning Jan. 11. The airline blamed economic conditions.
On the same day in November that Delta announced it would start nonstop service to Toyko from Salt Lake City, the airline said it also would start nonstop flights to Paris from Raleigh/Durham. A month later, the Atlanta-based airline changed its mind on the new Paris route, citing the economic climate.
Last month, Delta said it will cut an additional 6 to 8 percent of capacity in 2009. Domestic flying will be down 8 to 10 percent and international capacity will fall 3 to 5 percent.
