Originally Posted by
NYC1K
I saw this statement on Airliners.net. Any truth to this? I really liked the option of DL vs the awful BA/AA:
It looks like the last DL PHL-LHR flight will depart on March 23, 2018 and will return to PHL the following day. Currently there is not a bookable departure for the 757 out of PHL, so that does not give any hints about what the LHR slots could be used for. Loads have been awful on PHL-LHR, with many months below 50%, I am sure DL cannot wait to shift the slots elsewhere.
I find it interesting that Delta bought 5 slots to LHR, which it will receive on October 30, 2017 and now will have 7 more on March 24, 2017. So far, they have not announced any of their plans for these slots. The three options would be leasing/selling them, upping frequency on existing routes, or possibly adding new routes. What seems the most likely and what cities specifically seem the most likely?
For the 5x/week slots, DL has 5 morning arrivals on Sun/Tue/Wed/Thurs/Sat, which allows for Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri/Sat departures from a US station. The PHL slots give daily evening US arrivals for daily early morning arrivals into LHR.
Probably correct. DL is only operating PHL-LHR to fulfill the DOT's terms for acquisition of that slot from AA.
Of course, we all know where I want DL to use a LHR slot. They certainly seem to be racking them up lately.