CVG: Final Dehubbing?
 

CVG has reached a new agreement with the airlines for the first time in 40 years. The biggest part (IMO) allows them to start offering financial incentives to new carriers, something that Delta had been blocking for years. In addition, Delta will no longer be able to make the final decisions on moves by the airport board.

As a CVG flyer, I'm interested in hearing what everyone has to say.

Will Delta finally close the hub at CVG, or is there enough revenue from corporate contracts to maintain it?

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/mone...ment/29114783/

How exactly could Delta block the airport commission from taking any action related to competition?

They haven't been a DL "hub" for a while now....

Slowly everything is turnings into RJs -900 but still I see some Mad Dogs. I remember when it was a pretty large hub, enough so to have A B767 from CVG-SLC

CVG-CDG seems to perform very well so I'm guessing they will at least keep enough flights around to feed the flight as long it remains profitable. There are still some odd flights like CVG-XNA that must pull a lot of corporate traffic.

CVG hasn't been a hub for a couple years now... not sure what this would have any impact on. Good move by the airport to make sure they can remain financially viable going forward, and try to maybe try to get more competition or some of the empty gates filled.

I also thought this and it seems so also from maps on DL.com showing routes and hubs etc. I assumed it was a focus city. Still quite a few flights to places other than hubs.

Allegiant and Frontier already have a presence. Delta made a business decision and after the NW purchase/merger it was only going to be a matter of time.

CVG is clearly still a hub, it's just the smallest one in Delta's network.

Mainline:

Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Orlando, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Tampa

Seasonal: Cancun, Denver, Phoenix, Punta Cana, Seattle/Tacoma

Delta Connection:

Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago–O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Fayetteville/Bentonville, Fort Myers, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Houston–Intercontinental, Kansas City, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New York–JFK, New York–LaGuardia, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, St. Louis, Toronto–Pearson, Washington–National

Seasonal: Fort Lauderdale

You won't find that many destinations at a non-hub airport.

I'd like to see feed statistics on CVG. I wonder how many people are actually connecting through there on a daily basis?

For me, the crown jewel of CVG is obviously the Paris flight. Delta can cut a bunch of other cities, but as long as we keep that, I'll be happy. The day it goes is the day that CVG becomes just another nameless outstation.

I take it as a bad sign that CVG's airport map was dropped from Sky Magazine (not sure exactly when that happened, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty recent).

I'm OK with that, as long as the number of CRJ-200s and ERJ-145s continues to shrink. I'd like to see a few more E170/75s, but I'll take a 900 over a torture tube any day.

I try and connect in CVG whenever I can. There is no other hub that provides the customer service that I've received at CVG. Even when they were still operating 500 flights a day out of there they always got my luggage transfered on really tight connection (two occasions less than ten minutes). That just doesn't happen at any other hub.

The previous contract gave Delta the power to approve most major expenditures by the airport, even down to the purchase of new airport police equipment.

As a recipient of DOT funds CVG still had to provide equal-terms access to all carriers. The allegation of Delta's control of the airport is overstated.

They have to provide equal access, but there was no option for financial support to offset the inevitable undercutting that Delta would do to any LCC that tried to come in. That's what happened during the 90s.

Overall, it's difficult for any new carrier to enter at any airport if that airport isn't allowed to spend a cent on capital improvements that would benefit said new entry.

Ah, the glory days of the CVG fare wars in the 90's.... DL always won and the competition rarely lasted, but I was fun while it lasted.

I really hope RDU-CVG doesn't go away, even though it's a CRJ-200 it's nice having access to the two dozen or so destination that are an easy connection via CVG. Plus I love visiting the Skyclub there.