FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Has DL Cut too many flights? Analysis and discussion of schedule cuts.
Old May 26, 2020, 2:23 pm
  #16  
kavok
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: Marriott, IHG, Delta, United
Posts: 570
Originally Posted by GagaPilot
No. That’s not the message.

With those flights sold out, there’s a good chance people can’t construct valid connections.

Sure, if they are taking just that one flight then they are all set. Who cares what time of day it is or whether it is F/Y? At least there’s an option.

But, try making a valid connection (or two) using those available flights. Many times it’s just not possible.

Speculation on my part, but there are two competing goals at play here.

Obviously Delta wants to get you from XXX-YYY-ZZZ as efficiently as possible, but as discussed, with all of the cuts it isn’t working currently. The only real solution to that is to redevelop “connection banks” at the hubs, where most of the destinations have flights that arrive and depart around the same time. Without the banks, and with the greatly reduced flying schedule, many connections simply don’t work.

That all being said, there are two big financial obstacles to developing banks in the interim. Currently DL is canceling some flights, and leaving in place what remains. Creating banks likely requires schedule adjustments of those remaining flight, and often adjusting those remaining flight schedules by more than 90minutes. This of course leads to having to pay out even more refund money to currently booked pax, and quite possibly Delta would rather have bad connections than be forced to pay those additional refunds.

The second issue is aircraft utilization. Using DTW as an example, they only need one CRJ a day to fly to LAN, AZO, MBS, and TVC, as long as all those flights are spread out across the day (ie DTW-LAN-DTW in the morning, DTW-AZO-DTW in the early afternoon, etc.). If all four of those same destinations need to arrive and depart DTW in the same 4 hour window, that means 4 planes and 4 crews, which obviously costs more.

I guess what I am saying is that DL could do a better job with scheduling connections, but right now it may not be the most profitable decision to move forward with.
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