Originally Posted by
3Cforme
There was just one DL departure to LAX yesterday, and zero to JFK, SEA or SLC in spite of no IND-xxx non-stop competition to those three.
American flies IND-JFK non-stop. Kind of odd that the JFK flight is gone and I am not sure when it went away as they have flown this route for years.
IND has been a focus city since the merger. NWA built up a presence in IND to put ATA out of business and it worked. DL doesn't maintain all of those flights but it does a fair number of those. Having said that, I have flown IND-BOS a few times and the loads were pretty poor, I have no idea about the revenue.
IND-SLC has been on again off again for years. I think it is a needed route as the smaller markets in the west require double connections and they yield that mostly to UA if they don't have it. Having said that, it has obviously struggled with profitability or they would have it.
My sources say that IND-SEA is coming and other markets from SEA will be coming but Delta needs some gate space in SEA.
IND airport is almost desperate for a non-stop flight to Europe. If they had the money, they might even do a subsidy. The most likely route would be IND-CDG.
IND has always been a favorite of almost all airlines typically due to low labor costs. WN is the biggest carrier there and has been in the market for nearly 30 years. DL is the second biggest carrier.