DCA/MSN Nonstop Done as of February 1st?
 

For me, the first real impact of the DL/US slot swap has come to pass: last DCA-MSN nonstop appears to be January 31, 2012. Also, it appears that US won't be replacing it, as they're focusing their new DCA nonstops mostly in the south, with a few in the northeast and one to OMA. See this LINK. Not surprising, though, as US doesn't serve MSN at all, so it probably wasn't worth investing the money in start-up costs.

That said, there's been a NW/DL DCA/MSN nonstop since about 2002 or 2003, so apparently it was profitable. Additionally, since I moved to DC from MSN in early 2007, every time I've flown the nonstop over the last five years they seemed to be 80%-plus full; fares had also steadily trended upward to the point where it seemed the minimum I paid in 2011 was about $300ish compared to about $225ish only 2-3 years ago; DL had also upgauged the metal to a CR9 or CR7 from the long-standing CRJs.

On a related note, it will be interesting to see how DL changes its schedule at DCA as a result of their significantly reduced slots.

Looks like Frontier has picked up the route.

from what I can see, the DCA-FLL and DCA-MIA flights have died as well

:td:

a YX legacy--enjoy the cookies!
 

a Midwest Express legacy--enjoy the cookies!

I hope they keep the DCA-IND route but I don't have high hopes. I'm still bummed out that they got rid of the DCA-RDU flight.

DCA-MSY is gone as well...

Also looks like they also killed the DCA-STL nonstop flights as well...

Does this surprise ANYONE!!? They cut DCA-BOS and the slots that were given to US required the cutting of flights. DCA will become a to-hub focus city with a few extra 'spokes'. This is the model DL seems to use on a regular basis with major cities (look at MCO for example).

Really? I don't remember them flying that route nonstop. What years?

IND-DCA is getting cut in July.

Did something happen to MEM-DCA? A random search in February shows only one direct flight from MEM to DCA. Is DL.com having a senior moment or did DL reduce those offerings?

The US press release implies that they (US) are introducing MEM-DCA to pick up slack from other carriers on that route. Since DL is the only carrier with MEM-DCA service right now, I can only assume that this means that DL has cut or eliminated their direct service from MEM.

If so, that's a major(!!!) downer for me.

Delta gave up 42 slot pairs at DCA to gain 130+ at LaGuardia from US. Of course cities and/or frequencies from DCA are being cut. How possibly could the outcome be different!

This article in today's Washington Post makes it sound as if Delta is keeping the Memphis route and US is adding competition.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...TbP_story.html

But I also worry about the DCA-MEM flight getting cut.

MEM is no longer actually a hub... Surprised DL kept it @ 1x daily. Even now it's not running at a high capacity.

I'm sure you know the stats better than I do, but I can say with considerable experience that the morning and late afternoon flights are typically pretty full.

Also, I suspect that there was just something about the random Tuesday in Feb that I picked for my test search. The return leg the following day had the standard three non-stop options.