Delta Suspends Service To 11 Airports For “Health” Reasons

Delta Air Lines is suspending service to several stations, citing health concerns as the primary reason. How convenient that all of the airports happen to be in metropolitan airports not too far from larger Delta stations…

While Delta concedes “customer volume is significantly reduced” at these stations, it frames the changes in terms of protecting employee health:

“These changes will allow more of our frontline employees to minimize their COVID-19 exposure risk while ensuring convenient access to Delta’s network for those who must travel. Delta will continue providing essential service to impacted communities via neighboring airports.”

The temporary shutdowns will begin on May 13, 2020 and last through at least September 2020. The left column below indicates airports that will lose service while the right column indicates the closest alternate Delta station. In most cases, the airports are less than an hour apart.

Delta will also suspend service to Saskatoon International Airport (YXE), which has no nearby alternatives.

Sandy Gordon, Delta’s Senior Vice President – Domestic Airport Operations, added:

“The safety of our employees and customers remains our primary focus as we navigate these challenges together. By consolidating operations while customer traffic is low, we can allow more of our people to stay home in accordance with local health guidelines.”

That’s very kind of Delta, but smaller stations with fewer people pose a smaller health risk than consolidating passengers into one airport, making airport lobbies, security checkpoints, and airplanes more crowded.

Is This Even Legal?

Some of you may be asking if this is even legal. Didn’t Delta except CARES Act funding, which stipulated that all stations had to remain open in exchange for the government handout?

Yes, that was my reading too. But the DOT has allowed airlines to consolidate operations in multi-airport regions, with a fairly generous allowance. Hawaiian and JetBlue have also consolidated flights.

Delta warns more consolidation is ahead:

“Delta is looking at other opportunities to take similar measures in additional markets. Late last month, Delta filed a request with the U.S. Department of Transportation to consolidate operations in another nine cities served by multiple airports. That request is still under review.”

CONCLUSION

Like Chris form Rene’s Points, Burbank is also the airport closest to me and I hate to see it lose another carrier. On the one hand, with loads so low, the service simply seems unnecessary at this point with Los Angeles International so close. But this idea that airlines can suspend service to many smaller airports and corral them all into larger airports nearby does run contrary to the spirit of the CARES Act, as it was sold to the public, and arguably puts more people at risk of COVID-19 than less.

This is all about trying to save a few bucks. I just wish Delta had admitted it instead of hiding behind safety.

image: Delta

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