Massive bos-lga changes?
 

This shuttle is usually flown upwards of 14 times a day and for today and tomorrow there are only 3 flights per day. With many people traveling for the X-Mas Holidays it is quite puzzling.

Does anyone know if Delta has discontinued this shuttle?

It looks back to normal by January 3rd. Did you happen to search for additional data points before posting? I am sure Delta revenue management has years of evidence in making this decision, knowing that BOS-LGA is business heavy and that many flights just aren't needed for the leisure travel period this time of year brings on.

this has been the case with both American and delta for the last at least five years.

Holiday schedules can be weird. The BOS-LGA Shuttle gets drawn down more than most because it's focused more on business travel (which falls off a cliff over Christmas) and because lots of fares don't allow connections in LGA.

The holiday reductions in shuttle flights have been that way forever. They are geared to business travelers who don't travel much over the holidays.

DL is still flying more than AA which has recently just flat out cancelled the shuttle on certain days around the holidays (ie check this Saturday).

You would know that DL hasn't cancelled the DLS if you looked in the post-Holiday period. More importantly, it isn't puzzling in the least. It's not about loads or demand, but about PRASM and neither you nor I have access to that sort of proprietary data for a specific carrier on a specific route.

Most likely the drop in high-end busienss travel over the holidays means that there is all sorts of demand, but in low fare buckets only. Given competition by Amtrak & bus, leisure travelers won't pay the premium for the DLS. So, DL cans it.

On a brighter note, the move from the MAT to DL's standard gates will likely mean that DL starts selling more connections through LGA and that may help a bit starting next year.

I am not looking for BOS but LGA - DCA shuttle shuttle contracts for short work weeks (and even before and after days) to account for the lower expected traffic.Irony is that the flights that persist are usually very full.

Carriers want every flight to be full - and at high average fares!

They're full because the airline cut capacity to keep the load factor about the same with less scheduled flights, using aircraft for the reduced flights on other routes or just parking them for a few days.

Reduction of the schedule also means DL can deploy the equipment and crews to other routes that have more revenue.

DL (and airline in general) IT is often a mess but I think one place that generally has gotten continuous improvement and investment is revenue management. It's easy to see this investment in that nearly every flight is full but yet it is rare that there are not seats for sale up until departure.

+1

LGA connections to/from shuttle flights are for sale now, for flights on/after Jan 15 2018.

Bingo. Think of it this way...flights to Florida, for example, are much higher in demand for the holidays so I'm sure airlines are adding planes to satisfy that demand. For example, on the MCI-MSP flight route I regularly fly, DL usually flies 6x a weekday and WN twice. This week DL only has 4x and WN 1x...less demand for the holidays apparently.

Leisure travel and business travel are two totally different kettles of fish and every airline relies on both to keep the planes full.

Spirit?

Full Flight = More fees :)