Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Cargo, plus there are a bunch of people with international marriages (or children with different citizenship), dual citizenship, or citizenship and permanent residence on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Other categories that can travel freely include anyone in any sort of diplomatic post plus family, all employees of international organizations plus family, military plus family, and then those traveling for health care, first responder, or other essential work.

Originally Posted by liquidtoast

I myself fall into the dual citizenship category, but am finding it hard to believe that there are really that many people who are able (or willing to) travel at the moment. I'm glad to see so many links restored though, so that those who need or want to travel have choices again. They must really be moving a lot of cargo.

Anecdotally, a good friend recently travelled YYZ-AMS and CDG-YYZ on KL and AF and while the outbound was fairly busy, the return in particular was wiped. I suppose a lot of Canadians must not be making use of their ability to enter the EU - perhaps the quarantine on return is a deterrent.

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Personally, since I'm working from home anyway and living where restaurants are limited in what they can do now (and no way would I try to go to a bar or potentially crowded event of any sort now), I'd be very happy to take a trip someplace interesting (with no testing or quarantine requirements, although masks and limited opening would be OK--in fact, I'd prefer a place where masks are required and actually worn) and then self quarantine upon my return. Unfortunately I'm a few hundred miles on the wrong side of the border to be able to do this.

Originally Posted by GlobeTrttr83

The AMS base has a wide catchment area for pretty much all of Europe which eliminates the need for point-to-point services to say, DUS, EDI, DUB, etc. that would have otherwise existed. All of those passengers just take a 1x connection (or just ride a train from many points in central Europe) to AMS to catch their TATL.

Originally Posted by ClipperDelta

The issue with using AMS or CDG however is that it will be a 2-stop connection for many US cities since AMS or CDG only has nonstops to about 16-18 US cities (and that was pre-Covid). A coastal gateway like JFK or ATL provides a lot more US cities with one-stop service (even JFK, which doesn’t have that many domestic connections, could provide one stop connections from close to 50 US domestic cities).

It’s the same situation on the TPAC side as they still need SEA and LAX to provide one-stop connections from many US points to key Asia markets rather than totally relying on KE’s ICN hub.

Originally Posted by drminn

I have been trying to get a seat assignment on a TATL flight from MSP to AMS in October; called the platinum line, was advised that schedule changes are pending and to wait until the end of the week. This was after I got re-scheduled from the MSP AMS flight on KLM to a Delta flight. Looks like TATL schedules are still very fluid, even as close in as 6 weeks.

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Are longhaul international flights back to MSP? They weren't one of the dozen or so USA airports with medical screening to be able to handle passengers from most places due to COVID-19.

Originally Posted by ClipperDelta

DL made changes to the winter 2020-21 schedules and summer 2021 schedules for TATL this past weekend. Of course both will change about 500 or more times each from now till then, but it’s still interesting to see where DL’s priorities lie and what they consider important in the network and which areas they think traffic will return first:

For summer 2021 TATL (Europe/Africa/Israel/India) compared to summer 2020 schedule:

JFK: 5 of 27 nonstop routes suspended:
Suspended: SNN, GLA, CPH, PRG, BOM
Planned for S21: LHR, EDI, DUB, AMS, BRU, CDG, NCE, FRA, BER, ZRH, MXP, VCE, FCO, ATH, MAD, BCN,
LIS, KEF, TLV, DSS, ACC, LOS.

ATL: 5 of 17 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: MXP, VCE, BRU, ZRH, DUS
Planned for S21: LHR, DUB, AMS, CDG, FRA, MUC, STR, FCO, MAD, BCN, LOS, JNB/CPT

DTW: 2 of 6 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: MUC, FCO
Planned for S21: LHR, AMS, CDG, FRA

MSP: 1 of 4 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: KEF
Planned for S21: LHR, AMS, CDG

BOS: 5 of 9 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: LGW*, MAN*, EDI, LIS, FCO*
Planned for S21: LHR, DUB, AMS, CDG
*never even got to start as they were new for 2020

SEA: no drops, AMS and CDG still planned

SLC: only keeping AMS; CDG and LHR dropped

LAX: keeping CDG but dropping AMS

PDX: keeping AMS but dropping LHR

RDU-CDG: still planned for S21

CVG-CDG: still planned for S21

IND-CDG, MCO-AMS, TPA-AMS: all suspended right now for S21

So in total out of 76 nonstop routes across the Atlantic, they are keeping 52 so far for S21, which would be considered the peak of their TATL network for 2021.

Originally Posted by ClipperDelta

DL made changes to the winter 2020-21 schedules and summer 2021 schedules for TATL this past weekend. Of course both will change about 500 or more times each from now till then, but it’s still interesting to see where DL’s priorities lie and what they consider important in the network and which areas they think traffic will return first:

For summer 2021 TATL (Europe/Africa/Israel/India) compared to summer 2020 schedule:

JFK: 5 of 27 nonstop routes suspended:
Suspended: SNN, GLA, CPH, PRG, BOM
Planned for S21: LHR, EDI, DUB, AMS, BRU, CDG, NCE, FRA, BER, ZRH, MXP, VCE, FCO, ATH, MAD, BCN,
LIS, KEF, TLV, DSS, ACC, LOS.

ATL: 5 of 17 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: MXP, VCE, BRU, ZRH, DUS
Planned for S21: LHR, DUB, AMS, CDG, FRA, MUC, STR, FCO, MAD, BCN, LOS, JNB/CPT

DTW: 2 of 6 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: MUC, FCO
Planned for S21: LHR, AMS, CDG, FRA

MSP: 1 of 4 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: KEF
Planned for S21: LHR, AMS, CDG

BOS: 5 of 9 nonstop routes suspended
Suspended: LGW*, MAN*, EDI, LIS, FCO*
Planned for S21: LHR, DUB, AMS, CDG
*never even got to start as they were new for 2020

SEA: no drops, AMS and CDG still planned

SLC: only keeping AMS; CDG and LHR dropped

LAX: keeping CDG but dropping AMS

PDX: keeping AMS but dropping LHR

RDU-CDG: still planned for S21

CVG-CDG: still planned for S21

IND-CDG, MCO-AMS, TPA-AMS: all suspended right now for S21

So in total out of 76 nonstop routes across the Atlantic, they are keeping 52 so far for S21, which would be considered the peak of their TATL network for 2021.

Originally Posted by drminn

Apparently they are, I asked the DL agent. I'll take his answer with a grain of salt though, he didn't sound very convincing.

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Are longhaul international flights back to MSP? They weren't one of the dozen or so USA airports with medical screening to be able to handle passengers from most places due to COVID-19.

Originally Posted by xliioper

DL restart of MSP-AMS route has been pushed back to April 1st, 2021. KL flight is still in schedule at 4x weekly starting on October 25th.

Originally Posted by liquidtoast

Wow, thank you. Really sad to see some of these losses, especially routes like DTW-FCO from the old NW days. Interesting that ATL kept STR but not DUS, must be those corporate contracts.

What a shame to see so much expansion undone.