When the two carriers reconfigure their route maps, more destinations are being dropped.
On June 5, The Points Guy announced that the airline would stop operating flights to La Crosse, Wisconsin (LSE), and University Park Airport near State College, Pennsylvania (SCE). Beyond that time, no further tickets are being sold for the two locations.
This summer, there will be fewer flights from four carriers at three significant airports.
However, there won’t simply be less Delta and United travel options shortly at smaller regional airports. Airline Weekly said that the two carriers, along with United Airlines and JetBlue Airways, indicated that they would all be reducing the number of flights from the New York City area to assist ease difficulties with delays. Starting on June 15, the change may have an impact on up to 10% of all departures made by each airline.
Due to a persistent manpower shortfall affecting air traffic controllers in the area, the airlines are reducing their timetables. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated during a meeting in March that it anticipated only having 54% of the required employees working in the New York City area and predicted delays on about 45% of all flights leaving the region if traffic was not reduced, according to Bloomberg.
The FAA made a big concession with this action, agreeing to grant airlines waivers allowing them to maintain their runway slots at each airport notwithstanding the changes. If the slots are not utilised at least 80% of the time, the government often penalises airlines by reassigning them, according to Airline Weekly reported.
According to Bloomberg, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes stated in New York on March 29 that “this summer is going to be incredibly hard again.” “We need to fly less and make sure we can use what we already have.”
Source: Bestlife