CGNC

Speaking with an agent at IND and they mentioned a new three-year commitment by DL to make IND a focus city. This is supposed to include new print and media buys in the local market. Flight-wise at IND, there have not been any new major additions/markets. MCO is being offered near daily in the fall (checked for September) which is an increase over previous Sat-only service but other than that all seems to be normal.

I am a bit surprised DL has not added SEA service given their expansion there but wouldn't be shocked if it were added seeing as though there are no direct flights to Pacific Northwest from IND. NW, back in the day, did serve IND-SEA seasonally.

Anyone more familiar with what the focus city designation under DL generally brings?

HDQDD

At one point NW did sort of make a focus city out of IND. I don't recall everywhere they flew, but I know RDU, SEA and a few others, at the time, seemed like oddball routes for NW. I'm pretty sure I connected RDU-IND-xxx (don't recall where) a few times.

I think they were already starting to pull it down when the DL merger happened.

P.S.: I wouldn't put too much stock in what agents say, they're usually the last to know what's going on.

flyerCO

Yes NW had a focus city in IND. It actually worked great for a connection point. Half the time the plane you got off was the plane for your connection, if it wasn't the connection was right next door. Even the flight crews started to laugh that they knew half their passengers would probably be on the next flight they worked. I don't remember SEA being served though. As I recall it was all DC9 service.

LoganFlyer

I remember the NW mini-hub. I think it was their way of trying to knock the now-defunct ATA out of the hub they had there, and it worked. Once ATA left, NW drew back the hub. Here's an article from 2005 about it:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/trave...-indiana_x.htm

DA201

Honestly, I can't see DL making IND a focus city, as it is only 231 miles from DTW. However, I could see DL adding a few routes out of IND, including SEA and year round SLC. Maybe they attempt a transatlantic flight to CDG/AMS?

cubachao

Why DL make IND as a focus city and keep de-hub CVG? Does not make any sense

xliioper

CVG is still a mini-hub/focus city. It would likely be larger than an IND focus city should DL proceed with building one. A focus city is meant to serve O&D passenger demand and they largely do not compete with the hubs on connecting traffic. NW experimented with both MKE and IND focus cities in the past, even though they were close to MSP and DTW.

bowdenj

IND seems to already having pretty good DL non-stop cities.

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.

jrl767

I did DCA-IND-LAX and SNA-SLC-IND-DCA a couple times; CRJs on the DCA legs, a 320 to LAX (easy FO upgrade), and my first MD90 upgrades

indufan

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.

KDCAflyer

It's rather shocking that a market like IND doesn't have at least one flight to JFK.

SOBE ER DOC

It's not shocking if DL has determined that xxx-JFK routes are more profitable than IND-JFK. DL is using a lot of JFK flights as feeders for TATL traffic. Is there enough IND TATL traffic to AT THE RIGHT PRICE POINT to justify the flight and is it to enough TATL destinations not served from ATL, MSP or DTW? I ask because I honestly don't know.

CGNC

Yeah--SEA and SFO were summer-only flights and had decent loads, for sure.

Certainly not expecting MCI and some of the other destinations mentioned in the USA Today story to reappear (SW has a good handle on that route) but the airport authority has indicated recently that they're trying to help start service to LHR (presumably AA/BA), SEA and AUS. I suppose time will tell what, if anything, may come of these new efforts.

CGNC

Interestingly enough, two years ago, DL offered two IND-JFK flights and I remember thinking at the time that the two flights actually made it much better to connect at JFK. Reason being, I would sometimes fly to JFK and have a long layover, or on the return, I would land (specifically a SVO-JFK flight) without having MCT to catch the direct, and would have to fly up to BOS, then take the last departure to IND. When the second flight was added, this problem was eliminated, but the flights never lasted longer than the summer. From what I can tell as was mentioned earlier, some days these flights don't exist at all on DL, but do on AA.

I'd be shocked if IND-CDG picks up any legs, only because LHR has been mentioned frequently and AA has the Eli Lilly Co. contract, and I imagine they are big drivers of international service out of IND.