Delta Air Lines to cut more than half its focus cities

Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) will reduce the number of its focus cities from five to just two, Austin Bergstrom Int’l and Raleigh/Durham, in the post-pandemic recovery period, President Glen Hauenstein said during the 42nd Raymond James annual investors conference. As reported by Skift, Delta will no longer treat Cincinnati Int’l, Nashville Int’l, and San José, CA as focus cities. Hauenstein underlined that both Austin and Raleigh/Durham were “growing rapidly and had a high concentration of business traffic”. Prior to the pandemic, the airline targeted a “mid- to high-single-digit” number of focus cities, which are essentially small connecting hubs. According to the ch-aviation capacities module, out of the three focus cities due to be suspended, Delta is only, at present, the largest carrier by capacity in Cincinnati, which was once its hub. Its market share at the Kentucky gateway is currently 35.2%. It has an 11% market share at Nashville airport, behind Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, and just 6.6% at San José airport, behind Southwest, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. None of the three airports plays an outsized role in Delta’s network with their share in the total airline’s capacity less than 1% each. In fact, San José, the smallest of the three focus cities, is currently served by Delta with the same weekly capacity as Paris CDG, despite harsh ongoing restrictions on transatlantic traffic. Facing a slump in demand, Delta is currently focused on routing most of its traffic mainly through Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson, as well as its smaller hubs at Detroit Metropolitan, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Salt Lake City airports.