Has DL Cut too many flights? Analysis and discussion of schedule cuts.
Jul 13, 2020, 8:52 am
#196
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Good news for air travel: TSA numbers in the past week are still trending upwards after the July 4th holidays. Now consistently above 25% of last year's numbers. https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput
Bad news: Bookings continue to trend downwards, although there's some evidence that people are booking leisure travel closer to departure.
Last edited by ab2013; Jul 13, 2020 at 9:02 am
Jul 13, 2020, 4:06 pm
#198
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Yeah the 753 used to be a regular at MCO about 2-3 years ago. MCO-DTW was almost exclusively 753 and there were usually a few on ATL-MCO. The last two years, I haven’t seen any 753s out of MCO. Nice to see them back as they still have a full F cabin left of 2L where the 752 doesn’t.
Jul 13, 2020, 4:24 pm
#199
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what would FT be without the counterexample? I flew DTW-MCO on a 753 last Oct, and in fact there was a choice of two nonstops that morning
Jul 13, 2020, 5:56 pm
#200
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Yeah the 753 used to be a regular at MCO about 2-3 years ago. MCO-DTW was almost exclusively 753 and there were usually a few on ATL-MCO. The last two years, I haven’t seen any 753s out of MCO. Nice to see them back as they still have a full F cabin left of 2L where the 752 doesn’t.
I don’t doubt it, but compared with what it was pre-2016ish there were nowhere near as many. MCO-ATL was basically 50/50 752/3 at that time, and almost all MCO-DTW/MSP were 753s also.
Jul 13, 2020, 10:45 pm
#201
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Jul 14, 2020, 12:49 am
#202
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Jul 14, 2020, 11:26 am
#203
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I don’t doubt it, but compared with what it was pre-2016ish there were nowhere near as many. MCO-ATL was basically 50/50 752/3 at that time, and almost all MCO-DTW/MSP were 753s also.
Jul 14, 2020, 12:41 pm
#205
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With today's Q2 earnings release/call, it was mentioned that Delta will add back 500 instead of the previously-announced 1000 flights to the August schedule due to the rising number of cases which has caused demand growth to stall. I think some of those have already been reflected in the schedule changes this past weekend.
Jul 14, 2020, 1:36 pm
#206
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I think it’s understandable for them to only add back 500 instead of 1000 flights in August due to the rising cases and somewhat decreased demand. BUT, whatever they do, I hope they don’t make the horrendous cuts they made in April/May/June that made travel on DL essentially impossible if your routing required a connection. The July network has been a vast improvement over the previous Covid months. Many red-eyes have returned and the network overall has domestic connectivity again.
Jul 14, 2020, 2:02 pm
#207
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I think it’s understandable for them to only add back 500 instead of 1000 flights in August due to the rising cases and somewhat decreased demand. BUT, whatever they do, I hope they don’t make the horrendous cuts they made in April/May/June that made travel on DL essentially impossible if your routing required a connection. The July network has been a vast improvement over the previous Covid months. Many red-eyes have returned and the network overall has domestic connectivity again.
Jul 14, 2020, 2:19 pm
#208
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I agree that the May/June schedules were terrible and a lot of the network connectivity was made impossible. The good news is while DL said bookings have “stalled,” they haven’t declined yet so I assume that no drastic schedule cuts will need to be done yet. I do worry that the eventual September schedule and beyond could bring back some of the May/June connectivity issues as I assume demand will drop significantly as leisure travel will fall as schools start to go back into session (either online or in-person) and there won’t be enough business travel yet to have some of the current schedule levels.
Also thinking that KIX-SEA is going to get axed - was searching first week of April (around 4/4) and seeing refundable fares across all cabins being offered there.
Jul 14, 2020, 2:33 pm
#209
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I think that we'll start seeing September schedule changes roll out in the next few weeks - I think DL has already rolled out a few post-summer international service adjustments in the past week.
Also thinking that KIX-SEA is going to get axed - was searching first week of April (around 4/4) and seeing refundable fares across all cabins being offered there.
Also thinking that KIX-SEA is going to get axed - was searching first week of April (around 4/4) and seeing refundable fares across all cabins being offered there.
Jul 14, 2020, 3:02 pm
#210
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Yeah I’d expect to see the remaining September schedule (the August schedule goes through Labor Day weekend) posted any week now. I’d assume there will be lots of cuts across the board as there won’t be enough business traffic to pick up the lost leisure traffic that normally goes away after Labor Day. Hopefully the connectivity issues won’t be as bad as May and June, but I wouldn’t bet on it.