Delta Air Lines will end its nonstop service between New York (JFK) and Geneva (GVA) at the end of the IATA summer season in late October 2025. This follows the recent news that the New York–Brussels (BRU) route will end in January 2026 after 34 years and follows the elimination of New York–Munich (MUC) in 2024, marking the third transatlantic destination Delta has pulled from JFK in just over a year.
Delta Cuts New York To Geneva Flights
Delta re-launched its Geneva route in 2023 with a Boeing 767-400, highlighting the link as important for both corporate and leisure demand. But the service never gained traction, and Delta has now filed notice it will discontinue the route. Geneva is a competitive market anchored by Swiss International Air Lines and its Lufthansa Group partners, leaving Delta with limited beyond-connectivity options. Although a popular diplomatic route, Delta could not command a premium for the route that justified its continued operation.
Is Delta Struggling In New York?
Delta has long invested heavily in New York JFK, marketing itself as the city’s global carrier and building out facilities at Terminal 4. Yet compared to United at Newark, Delta has had a harder time sustaining a broad longhaul portfolio. In recent years it has steadily pared back both Europe and Asia flying from JFK.
One factor is alliance strength. United leverages deep Star Alliance connections through its European partners in BRU, GVA, and MUC. Delta, by contrast, has fewer joint venture partners with strong onward feed in these markets, limiting its appeal. The sheer competitiveness of JFK also plays a role: with multiple carriers on most major routes, Delta often cannot command the pricing power it enjoys in fortress hubs like Atlanta (ATL) or Salt Lake City (SLC).
This trend is also visible in Asia. Delta was unable to make Mumbai (BOM) service work and did not even bother to propose a JFK to Tokyo (HND) flight when a slot was available (American Airlines was awarded the route). Despite a deep relationship with Korean Air and onward connectivity from Seoul (ICN), it has not launched its own flight from JFK to ICN. The pattern suggests that New York has proven far tougher to dominate than Delta’s other hubs, which should not be controversial considering the competition there versus at fortress hubs like Atlanta.
Disciplined Network Planning
To Delta’s credit, it has always been disciplined with its network planning. The carrier is quick to cut underperforming routes rather than allow them to bleed. Geneva may have looked promising two years ago, but clearly the numbers did not add up. Aircraft and crews can be redeployed to higher-yield markets where Delta can better leverage its strengths (though I question whether Sardina and Malta will do any better).
Still, it is telling that New York remains such a difficult market for Delta. The airline thrives in Atlanta, Boston (BOS), Detroit (DTW), Minneapolis (MSP), and elsewhere, but at JFK it continues to retreat, at least in terms of longhaul routes. Even for one of the most disciplined carriers in the world, New York is proving to be an unforgiving battleground. Faced with competition on these routes, people were not choosing Delta.
Delta recently said its Los Angeles (LAX) – New York route is its most profitable. Maybe it makes sense simply to do more transcontinental flying?
CONCLUSION
Delta’s decision to pull the plug on New York–Geneva highlights both its disciplined approach to capacity and the challenges it faces in New York. Despite large investments and bold marketing, Delta has struggled to make JFK work for longhaul expansion. With United entrenched at Newark and American benefiting from oneworld strength at JFK, Delta’s position in New York is evolving, even as it has pursued a smart focus on both LaGuardia (LGA) and Kennedy airports. Geneva is just the latest reminder that even for Delta, New York is a tough market.
image: Delta
I feel like I’m reading One mile at a Time with a 24 hour delay today….;)
Fair enough…in my defense, my “real” job kept me away from my computer yesterday or I would have covered these then.
You covered it differently.
OMAAT uses the word “gorgeous” too much. It also is more credit card oriented and never covers economy class. That is not to say OMAAT is bad because it isn’t.
OMAAT is bad. Matthew doesn’t need to be a signal repeater for it.
I write about what interests me and that happens to often overlap with what Ben finds interesting. We didn’t become friends because we were so different.
They have also pulled JFK-LGW and LGW is another market exit. Consolidating at LHR only.
Is New York the problem or it is Geneva? Just out of curiosity I played with Google flights and couldn’t find more than 2 non stop flights per day to Geneva from anywhere in the US. That is a small market. I worked in Geneva many times and spent time there. It is a lovely city but sleepy. I doubt those Delta flights were full so maybe the destination was not profitable at all.
Agree. Geneva is well known but SMALL! Like 200k residents, and ~500k in the metro area. Think about US cities that size: Raleigh, KC, Milwaukee, Omaha, Sacramento.
And then there is LX / UA / Star Alliance:
– UA + LX both have directs to the NY area
– ZRH is a MUCH larger hub, I’m sure all of LX’s connecting travel goes through there.
Except Geneva is filthy rich and has a heap of international organizations and entities there.
Filthy rich don’t fly Delta. I know several clients that live in GVA. They fly private.
Precisely. Why on earth would the Swiss fly any American airline?
AA has a better seat with better bedding than SWISS…hopefully SWISS Senses fixes that.
I find it odd that Delta thinks it will be more profitable flying to Malta and Sardina instead of Geneva. It’s probably more a reflection that Delta’s product is awful and just not competitive.
Delta international flight 1-time was more than enough for me. (Accustomed to ANA, JAL & Lufthansa.)
Many options to Europe & elsewhere operate w/better overall Customer Service than Delta.
That said, am enjoying not flying this year–too many weird scenarios.
I’m waiting for the traveling public to become a bit more sane…
Those of us who need to connect in the US to get to Europe avoid JFK every time.
Uh… not necessarily. Many, like myself, live in cities where DL and sometimes AA have the most attractive routings to Europe through JFK. For instance, I regularly do DL-SAS on CLT-JFK-CPH or would do CLT-JFK-HEL on Finnair. JFK’s advantage when connecting to Europe is that there’s no double-customs screening (i.e if I travel from CLT to CPH on AA/BA I have to get screened at LHR and CPH due to Brexit).
Any time that the most evil airline on Earth fails, it makes me very happy. They speak some German in Geneva (mostly French there, th0ugh), so they’d understand the concept of schadenfreude.
“The carrier is quick to cut underperforming routes rather than allow them to bleed.”
that is what ALL well-run businesses do – cut underperforming lines of business and add new ones.
The reason why DL is the most profitable US airline – despite continually pushing pay for its employees higher on top of industry leading profit sharing – is because DL doesn’t hold onto routes as trophies to be put on a shelf but rather assets that have to deliver or be reallocated.
And UA also cut BOM as well as all of its China and HKG flying from outside the US. If those routes were really profitable, they would make them work – Russia airspace restrictions or not – which is what they do with DEL.
and, yes, alot of Matthew’s content is recycled from other sites.