FNT-MSP to be Discontinued 12/18
 

FNT-MSP, which has been operating as 2x CRJs for the past few years, and used to be a legacy DC-9 route, will be cut in December 2018.

FNT has had a spectucular fall from grace over the past decade. Obviously all the AirTran Florida flying, that NW for a period countered as well, then WN pulling-out of the market completely earlier this year.
For now, DL's ATL service, plus AA & UA service to ORD, and G4's token leisure service remains.

Long gone are the days of FNT being the backdoor entrance to the DTW airport for mileage/segment runs, and often cheaper fares by taking 12-minute in-flight hop down to DTW.

FNT-MSP was the first flight I was ever on as a kid. Connected to a flight heading to somewhere in the Dakotas for an extended family vacation. Makes me a little teary-eyed.

Emotions aside, I'm absolutely amazed this didn't happen sooner.

FNT (Ariport, not the city) is a really interesting and unique case. It's close, but not too close, to a major airport and a major population center. There are a lot of folks in the Northern Detroit metro who could get to FNT quicker, but with the lack of destinations, the drive to DTW saves connections. My office is in the Northern Detroit suburbs and I fly RDU-ATL-FNT quite often. Much of my travel is last minute, and I can often save half the cost by going to FNT. That pricing has been consistently cheaper for 7-8 years now. I wonder if that's why they can't seem to sustain WN and MSP...they just can't get good yields...

They recently (~2-3 years ago) finished an expansion of the terminal. When I flew out at noon the other day, the airport was completely empty at security and the only people in the terminal were at the gate for the flight I was getting on. It's sad, because it's such a great little airport. I can land there and be driving off in a rental car in 5 minutes. DTW it's closer to an hour with their far away rental car center/bus setup. I worry with the drop in pax if they'll eliminate the TSA pre-check

With Southwest gone from FNT, Delta has little reason to compete with its own pricing (and frequencies, and lower-CASM aircraft) out of DTW.

Great airport to fly from. I haven't been on the FNT-MSP flight in a couple of years, but I like using FNT-ATL when it works with my schedule. Wishful thinking but maybe this means FNT-DTW is coming back?

Obviously my sample size is small, but I have found just about all DTW based flights cheaper then FNT this year. I usually book about two weeks out.

If you think that means FNT-DTW is coming back, then I've got some tap water to sell you.

​​​​​​
I've been looking at quite a few TATL itineraries recently. Compared GRR, LAN, FNT and DTW origins. DTW origin was always always cheapest on DL, with the except of a cheap LAN-FRA a few weeks ago that I pulled the trigger on. FNT wasn't even close most of the time, even considering how expensive parking at DTW is for 1 week+ (unless you park so far away that you basically need a connecting flight to your parking spot).

The thought of an extended vacation somewhere in the Dakotas with the family makes me a little teary-eyed too. :D

Those were the days, when I was younger and didn't mind the layover for the short hop up to FNT. Depending on FA's mood, often a PDB and one quick one in the air when up front!

One could only hope!

Same here. Flint is actually closer to the city I visit regularly in Michigan, so my preference is to fly there. But in the past three years I've only done so a couple of times, because Flint is typically ~$300 higher than Detroit.

Used to be that DAY was usually a much cheaper alternative to CVG during the CVG hub days. However as CVG got dehubbed from its peak and then as more carriers came in, adding some more competition, I found CVG was often a better deal than DAY when I lived there in the earlier part of the decade. Either that, or DL was IP tracking and since my home was in DAY at the time, they were trying to get me to pay more to fly out of DAY while those down in Cincinnati were seeing higher fares for CVG over DAY. :p

I suppose it depends on the market dynamics for each city pair. My issue is likely that I am booking last minute.

From RDU:
I have had times when DTW was the cheaper option, but that's been pretty rare. There was a few month span a few years ago where that was the case. But for the most part, RDU-DTW has always been expensive (often close to $1000 R/T with less than a week notice, at least on DL, I haven't really shopped them, I just choose FNT). FNT is usually around $600 for the same days. Anecdotal for sure, but for me it's been pretty constant.

Other nice thing about the ATL FNT leg is that it's an easy upgrade. One of the few routes where one can sometimes find empty seats in F...

With 3-week advance, DTW-RDU is definitely cheaper than FNT-RDU looking at Google Filghts. It's the closer-in flights where the pricing seems to flip.