gsiskind

While I know a hub is nice for economic development and it's nice to have direct flights everywhere, I don't really miss not having the Delta hub in Memphis anymore. We were one of the most expensive cities in America for flights and because we're in the middle of the country and I was flying direct, I also wasn't getting as many miles and that meant fewer upgrades. We've got flights nearly every hour to Atlanta which is usually less than an hour to get to and I'm a Diamond now getting upgraded most of the time or just buying first class seats because the cost is what I used to spend on coach when we had Delta with 90% of our airport's flights.

jj243

Mountain Explorer

This isn't actually the announcement. This is the first day of service. The announcement was 6 months ago

Mountain Explorer

DL just moved into gates 10 thru 15 at SJC (they don't have them exclusively of course, but they will operate from those gates going forward). These are next to the international gates so it would be an easy connection if DL adds international flights. These are also arguably the most convenient gates in the whole airport (a few yards from security and a 2 minute walk from gate to curb). AA and UA got bumped into the less convenient lower-numbered gates. This could be an indication that the airport is getting ready for additional DL flights

sydneyracquelle

Mountain Explorer

Good point. Would work well for domestic to International transfers tho.

SJC ORD LDR

I think there is security in the international arrivals building so you can go back. If not, it's a short walk from the international arrivals building to the terminal (~2 mintues).

ND76

I love how people write history as if the world was created this morning.

Delta has had a significant relationship with BOS since it acquired Northeast Airlines from John B. Storer in 1972. The following two paragraphs from the Wikipedia article on Northeast Airlines are interesting (I graduated from high school in 1972, so this dates me):

In 1969, following a long period of financial difficulties, Northeast announced its intention to merge with Northwest Airlines. The merger was approved by both the CAB and President Richard Nixon in 1970, but it was conditional upon relinquishing the Miami-Los Angeles route. Northwest terminated the merger negotiations in March 1971, and Northeast announced a new merger plan with Delta Air Lines the following month. The Delta merger was approved in May 1972, with the same condition that Delta could not operate the Miami-Los Angeles route. The merger was completed in August 1972.Northeast's contribution to Delta included access to the Boston market, which Delta had not served. Delta added the Boeing 727-100 and 727-200 to their fleet, types they did not operate prior to acquiring Northeast. Delta used these as the workhorses of their fleet in the 1970s and 1980s and at one point was the world's largest operator of the Boeing 727-200.

The Big D is returning the BOS-DCA route it once operated until it sold off some of its DCA slots. Good for Delta.

cptlflyer

Delta has been the fastest-growing airline at SJC by far, with double-digit growth that significantly outpaces DL's overall growth system wide.

More like "growth" -- with the marketing effort necessary to support it, naturally.

Mountain Explorer

WN and AS growth has been significant also. DL may in fact be the largest percentage growth, but that ONLY means that DL started really really tiny (and therefore takes advantage of a small denominator). There is nothing at all impressive about DL's operation at SJC, especially in comparison to the population of metro San Jose. Comparing to WN, DL's operation at SJC is insignificant.

WillBarrett_68

I'm not sure what that has to do with whether it's a focus city or not.

Randomlyredneck

Poor MEM...While I tend to agree, I wish they would put larger aircraft on the MEM to ATL route. It's very 3rd World at times. Perhaps when the Mad Dogs fly off to that great desert graveyard, we'll get a contemporary offering.

Mountain Explorer

I guess it depends on your idea of a focus city. I think of it as a hub-lite, for example RDU. An airport with a significant domestic service level including a number of non-hub routes and perhaps a couple of international flights. Not big enough to be a hub, but still with a quite notable service level. By my definition, SJC doesn't even come close. I completely respect that other people might have very different definitions of focus city, and those definitions are equally valid. I don't think we need to debate it.

lonelygod

good point! actually if SJC-JFK could have a meal like other long-haul domestic - that will be great, I mean SEA-RDU/MCO has free cheese&fruit..

At the same time, I see a news that with 764s being reconfigured, all LAX-JFK will be wide-body 763s.. maybe that can spare a 752 for SJC-JFK (dreaming...)

iansltx

May numbers for AUS just got posted and DL is up 11.2% YoY for pax carried. Pretty sure that virtually all of this is from using larger aircraft...717s look like they're being rotated out of here, at least for the high season...rather than additional frequencies. But hey, I haven't noticed any flights using 737s out of here on DL so I'm not complaining.

Probably doesn't hurt that #1 and #2 here both have a good chunk of MAX8s, so they can't grow as much (airport-wide traffic is up ~9%, WN and AA are ~6%). These numbers also put DL at ~10k pax per month (departures + arrivals) behind #3 UA, with a gap that's closing in every successive month (though NK just started a daily run to ATL so maybe that trend will slow momentarily). And that's without any new destinations.

With all that said, a 717 (or 220!) to BNA would be lovely; WN has 3x daily on that route with ~$350 R/T fares, and turnabout is fair play given that WN just started AUS-RDU. Probably an easier route to make money on than AUS-SJC, as fares are ~$50 OW lower on the latter.