james318

And many of these folks are moving to AUS. Which is why AUS is likely sticking around.

MSPeconomist

Regardless of location, work from home (in tech and other areas) due to COVID-19 means essentially no business travel, although longer term, some of these companies could do work from home to cut expenses and ask people to travel regularly to headquarters or elsewhere for group meetings.

BNA always surprised me as a focus city as it's not a high yield location, largely due to lots of competition from WN. OTOH, it's a low cost of living urban area, so that could have made the economics work there. There would be some high tech firms due to Vanderbilt and its med school.

Ryno1234

Totally agree with you on Nashville. never got that either, but you make some valid points. As a CVG based flyer, i hope a lot of those routes come back, especially RDU, BWI SFO and PHL. And they had better leave that skyclub open too

kop84

I'm guessing in a post COVID world SJC traffic was just too expensive to go after. With WN having such a presence in both SJC and OAK it's an uphill climb for anyone in the bay area not already with UA. Even if DL would have added a flight to AMS or CDG, it would have likely just cannibalized the AF/KL flights out of SFO instead of gaining new passengers. If DL was willing to lose money in SJC for 4-5 years they probably could have elbowed their way to #2, but that's certainly less tolerable now where there aren't profits to hide the money pit truly battling for SJC would become. Plus who's more likely to keep teleconference after COVID than tech companies?

SJC ORD LDR

I have heard rumors of adding a Sky Club. I'm not sure where it would have gone,

Zorak

The former AA club would've been a good candidate, but it's now a second "The Club" lounge. Also that location would've been better when DL was using the low numbered gates. 11-13 are closer to TSA and the exit, which is nice, but inconveniently in the middle between the two lounges...

Mountain Explorer

DL at SJC did see very significant growth recently. Barely 5 or 6 years ago, DL had a few CR2s to SLC and a few CR7/9 to LAX. Only 1 mainline flight to MSP. That was it.

Just before covid, it was 5x SLC, 5x LAX, 4x SEA, 3x LAS, 3x ATL, 3x MSP, 1-2x DTW, 1x JFK. All mainline except LAX/LAS

This put DL clearly into 3rd place at SJC and they were rewarded with the best gates in Terminal A. (1st and 2nd place are both in Terminal B).

I think this is a very reasonable offering. I don't expect DL will drop that service, nor do I expect they will grow it.

jj243

And after the focus city designation, certain flights upgauged further. ATL went from a 737 to a 757. That was a nice change.

lhrbound03

I'll preface by saying, I'm not contesting the validity of the announcement by any means. Also no intent to derail the thread. However. In 2012 I started ground handling for DC flights in a CRJ-200 only station. My supervisor at the time swore to me (and I believe it had been announced then, too) that the "CRJ-200s were being retired by 2013." My response was always that I'd believe it when I saw it. Same applies here. I'll believe it when I see it.

Intl359Widget

I'm of the same vein but in this instance the CR2 days are numbered... they're aging ... almost done ... and certainly has seen better days.

lhrbound03

I guess I have to disagree. Not that I enjoy riding on CRJ-200s by any means, but... they're far from the oldest planes when compared against the rest of the DL/DC fleet (some of the newest until 2016ish, and now probably middle of the pack for age). Lots of them rolled off the line in the mid 2000s. Seen better days in what respect? That they haven't gotten hard-padded seats like the new interior'ed 737s have that are from the late 90s? Or the 320s that are from the early 90s? Frankly, I'll take the soft-padded slightly worn seats. Not to start a fruitless debate, but my beef with the CRJ200 revolves more around it's inability to put most standard carry-ons in the overhead bin and it's notorious weight and balance issues.

xliioper

The DL commitment was to reduce the number of 50-seaters from 343 in 2012 down to 125 frames. There was never any mention of completely eliminating them by DL management back then. They eventually hit the 125 mark in 2018 and have continued to reduce since. They ended 2020 with a meager 54 CRJ-200s in operation. This was a reduction of 63 aircraft from the start of 2020. There may be some that are temporarily parked, but DL didn't break down by aircraft type in their annual report (they only mention 35 temporarily parked regional aircraft). I suspect the bulk of the temporarily parked aircraft are larger RJs. They recorded a $320M impairment charge in the annual report for retiring the CRJ-200's by the end of 2023. There were also impairment charges for the 717 and 763ER fleets which are due to be retired by the end of 2025.

lhrbound03

Fair enough. I wasn't aware of the actual agreement or specifics of the 2012/13 metrics or target numbers. But, COVID certainly made it easier to make the 2020 number go down. I don't think the 200s are going to disappear anytime soon, but I digress. It's not like I have anything for or against them, they are/were what they were.

cptlflyer

Also quoting from the article the OP cited:

Focus city for Delta has meant a city where they are focusing resources on growth. It has nothing to do with network, per se. DL had grown significantly at SJC pre-pandemic, even if it only have one non-hub route. Over time, I think we would (and still may) see additional point-to-point growth to serve the local Silicon Valley market.

The whole Bay Area lags the rest of the country on travel right now, so it makes total sense for Delta to prioritize its resources elsewhere for the time being. Once the pandemic ends and the Bay Area gets back to life, I think it's a safe assumption that SJC will be back on Delta's (and others') radar for growth given the underlying strength of the Silicon Valley market.

navi_jen

GE pretty much has demanded this route in the past. Gotta think it will continue. GE and P&G have a LOT of influence in Cincy matters.