DL appears to have another BOS buildup coming
 

According to the weekly OAG thread on airliners.net, Delta this week loaded flights from Boston to DCA, EWR and ORD:

Looks like BOS-DCA is 6x daily, all operated by Republic E175s, BOS-EWR is 4x daily, all operated by Republic E175s, BOS-ORD is 5x daily, operated by Republic E175s.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if these all switched to A220s before they go up for sale — either that or this is what Delta's planning to do with E-175s newly freed up by A220s.

I find it a bit odd that they're adding new routes 10 months out. Most airlines are just wrapping up or have just finished planning for international flights next summer (7 months out). Does DL even have gate space at ORD? They just added RDU-ORD. Where are the RJs coming from? CVG?

Yeah, I'm even more puzzled about DCA, unless they are majorly downsizing somewhere from DCA (CVG?)

The routes where E75/CR9s are being replaced by the (already announced) A220s is freeing up a lot of 2-class RJs.

YX only has 16 E75s that fly for DL, so this BOS expansion will eat up a bunch of those. (They also have 22 E70s that fly for DL and they aren't afraid to swap as needed.) Those planes are currently on routes like LGA-BOS & LGA-DFW, which as mentioned above, are being moved to the A220s. I'm always happy for more service out of BOS, and I'm especially happy for the return of BOS-DCA!

Glad to see a BOS-ORD also, although that is a bit surprising.

Ouch - this had already been cut from hourly, eliminating the 11am and 1pm southbound. I wonder which other 2 frequencies are going (though 6x daily for BOS suggests they're taking 2x from LGA and 4x from somewhere else). Lack of hourly on the shuttle makes it much less useful but DL already had pretty much exclusively E70s (rather than E75s), and my guess is Acela takes more traffic NYC-WAS than NYC-BOS (the train trip to WAS is almost a whole hour faster than to it is to BOS). I wonder if BOS-ORD/DCA will be marketed as Shuttle (only difference nowadays being pretty much free beer/wine in coach).

Not sure about ORD, but my guess is 10 months out is when they get the 5 gates back from Southwest at Logan. I believe in ~March 2018 is when AA is consolidating on the old US Airways side of B / that work will be finished, and it will free up the old AA pier for refurb/preparation for Southwest (I think all they're doing is re-painting the ramp to take 8x 737s rather than 7x mix of 757/767/777)

Looking at the schedule, DCA-LGA has been cut down. They've also eliminated the 0600 to CVG, and the corresponding 2130 to DCA. DCA-CVG is now 3x daily on mainline. DCA-DTW also lost a frequency.

Not surprised about DCA-LGA. The Acela has been eating the shuttle's lunch for years now. As for CVG, I use that 2130 flight a lot so I'm disappointed, but it's always nice to see mainline replace RJs.

Overall at DCA:

DCA-LGA: -2
DCA-CVG: -1
DCA-DTW: -1
DCA-ATL: -1
DCA-RDU: -1

DL must be all-in on this to consider touching ATL. Time will tell.

These are certainly routes DL needs if they want to fully fill out BOS, but man I don't see how BOS/ORD doesn't just set money on fire. BOW/EWR and DCA is at least it's UA/B6 and AA/B6 as the competition.

But to ORD we're looking at AA, B6, UA , NK to ORD and WN to MDW. Fares are already less than $200 each way. I don't even know what DL is going to have to offer to elbow in to this market.

Press release is out: https://news.delta.com/delta-adds-mo...-washington-dc

Some interesting nuggets including a SkyClub expansion, taking full ownership of Terminal A by 3Q 2019, and BOS-CLE also being launched, 3x daily on April 1:

It would seem the BOS-CLE add was a last minute reaction to United pulling out of the market this weekend, as the other flights are available for sale, but BOS-CLE won't be available until Dec. 22, even though it starts sooner.

Maybe. But one could have said the same thing when they started LGA-ORD (against ~30 AA/UA flights), or LAX-SFO. Those have both have proven durable for Delta.