Delta Air Lines just did something that, on the surface, looks small: seven new Saturday-only flights from Orlando. But the implications run much deeper.
Come December 20, Delta will begin service from Orlando (MCO) to Birmingham (BHM), Cincinnati (CVG), Columbus (CMH), Kansas City (MCI), Milwaukee (MKE), Omaha (OMA), and Raleigh-Durham (RDU). All of these routes are seasonal and operate only once a week—on Saturdays—through April 11, 2026.
That’s not a major hub expansion. It’s not even daily service. But it is unmistakably strategic.
In the world of network planning, this isn’t just a test. It’s a thesis: that Orlando—with its year-round demand, family traffic, and explosive growth—is ripe to be more than just another spoke. And Delta may not be alone in seeing the writing on the wall.
The Orlando Experiment: Point-to-Point Without a Hub
Delta’s choice to launch seven point-to-point routes from a non-hub airport is uncharacteristic of the airline’s traditional operating model but not entirely without precedent. Delta runs a tight hub-and-spoke system, with fortress hubs in Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Salt Lake City (SLC), and Detroit (DTW).
But Orlando is Florida’s busiest airport, with more than 58 million passengers in 2023. And it’s growing. New terminals, new lounges, and new traffic from both coasts have made it more than just a spring break hub. It’s a year-round revenue machine.
So why these seven cities? They’re not all obvious choices. Omaha and Milwaukee aren’t top tourist feeders and having grown up in Omaha, I can see the appeal, but Southwest has long offered a nonstop option. But each offers solid catchment areas with Delta loyalty, limited nonstop competition, and the kind of secondary-market demand that blooms when the fares are right.
Operating on Saturdays allows Delta to capture the peak leisure traveler without eating into fleet commitments elsewhere. Business flights occupy the fleet Sunday through Friday but no one travels for business on Saturday yet there is, of course, plenty of leisure demand for Saturday to Saturday weeklong vacations. These aircraft would otherwise sit idle so it makes sense to use them somewhere. For example, from my home airport in Pittsburgh, American and Delta both operate nonstops to Cancun on Saturdays during peak season as well despite a lack of hub status.
It’s also worth noting what’s not happening here: there’s no mention of a base for aircraft or crew. These are likely turn flights operated by regional partners, but Delta hasn’t yet specified which ones. In classic Delta fashion, they’re dipping a toe without making a splash.
Delta’s History of Non-Hub Surprises: Remember Indy or Pittsburgh to Paris?
Delta has stepped outside its comfort zone before. A fellow travel blogger called some of Delta’s random trans-Atlantic flights the “Delta Dart Board.” Remember Indianapolis (IND) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG)? That nonstop, which launched in 2018, was the crown jewel of Indiana’s international aspirations. But it quietly disappeared from Delta’s schedules after the COVID-19 pandemic and has not returned. Pittsburgh had 5x/week service on a 757 to Paris CDG as well, and it incidentally is part of the reason I ended up in Pittsburgh rather than elsewhere in the US – but that’s another story for another time.
Both routes had all the makings of a prestige play—long-haul international, a partner hub on the other end, and ample local support. But Delta didn’t stick with it. The route hasn’t reappeared.
Still, Delta has shown that it’s not averse to creative network design when the math checks out. In other words: we tried, it didn’t work, we’re out.
Focus Cities Like Orlando Offer Unique Upside
Compare that to American Airlines’ well-documented misadventure in Austin. The carrier invested heavily in building out Austin as a focus city, adding dozens of new flights to secondary destinations. It was a bold, if not fully baked, experiment. Less than two years later, they pulled the plug on nearly all non-hub flying, declaring that Austin would return to its “core connectivity role.”
Focus cities are not new. JetBlue’s play in Boston, Southwest’s dominance in Las Vegas show how these “non-hub hubs” can drive tremendous value. But they only work under the right conditions.
Orlando hits a lot of those marks.
The demand is consistent year-round. It’s not just summer or holiday peaks—Orlando has a rolling calendar of conventions, events, and steady family travel. Pair that with strong infrastructure and ongoing investment in the airport itself, and you’ve got a breeding ground for smart capacity deployment.
Other cities that mirror this kind of dynamic include Las Vegas (LAS), Cancun (CUN), and New York-LaGuardia (LGA). All are heavily trafficked, tourism-centric markets that benefit from consistent demand and minimal seasonality. Airlines can use these cities to test new routes, keep aircraft moving, and generate revenue without building out massive operational overhead.
For consumers, it’s a win. More flights, lower fares (thanks to competition), and better connectivity. For airlines, it’s a hedge against the volatility of relying solely on hubs that can become congested, weather-impacted, or constrained by slot limitations.
Will Delta (and Others) Lean Into This Trend?
So is Delta’s move in Orlando the start of a broader shift? Or is this simply a short-term response to excess fleet availability and low opportunity cost for regional aircraft on Saturdays?
Here’s the thing: Orlando could very well be a prototype. If the flights perform, we could see Delta adding more frequencies—or replicating the model in other cities like San Diego, Tampa, or Nashville. But there’s also the chance this is a very specific response to competitive pressure and capacity constraints elsewhere.
Airlines are, by nature, both experimental and risk-averse. They’ll try almost anything once. But they’ll also abandon a project just as fast if the numbers don’t pan out.
Still, Delta doesn’t make network moves lightly. If they’re investing in even limited point-to-point flying from Orlando, it means they see a return. It may not be a new hub. But it could be the start of a new focus city strategy—one built not on loyalty and corporate contracts, but on raw, unrelenting demand.
What makes Orlando unique is that Southwest also offers nonstop flights to many of these smaller markets. Spirit and JetBlue share about 25% of all traffic at MCO while Southwest has that much by themselves; Frontier has 10% of the market. Delta already accounted for 12% of all traffic at the airport as of October 2024. As a (Saturday) focus city, it’s competing predominately with LCCs and ULCCs meaning that even if planes are full, fares will be cheap and even a success for occupancy could be a failure financially.
Final Thoughts
Whether or not Delta calls Orlando a “focus city,” the playbook looks familiar. Point-to-point routes, smart scheduling, and careful deployment of regional resources. It might not be a grand strategy—yet—but it certainly walks and talks like one. Moving equipment to focus on a busy leisure market with second and third tier cities is a departure from the norm, but it could be the start of something new.
We’ve seen this movie before. Carriers chase opportunity, test new ground, and sometimes retreat. But when the market fundamentals are this strong, it’s hard not to think Orlando could be the first of many.
After all, a focus city by any other name still smells like opportunity.
What do you think?
You missed one. They’re also doing Louisville o Orlando
Missed GRR Grand Rapids also.
Delta already runs CVG-MCO 7 days a week, 2-3x daily.
This article is saying a whole lot about nothing. Delta has always run a focus city type operation in MCO, from the Delta Express days, to Song, to later flights to secondary cities, as well as international routes like Amsterdam and São Paulo. Also, there’s been a crew base in MCO for over 30 years.
great article, Kyle.
DL is picking off WN passengers using resources that otherwise do not generate revenue near as successfully on Saturday for a business-focused airline. DL is the largest legacy carrier in a number of WN focus cities/hubs.
I think BNA is also on the list of Sat only MCO flights.
The international “point to partner hub” flights were revenue guaranteed flights. They didn’t develop or, in the case of PIT, the airport offered a new revenue guarantee to BA for LHR service which made DL’s CDG flight unprofitable.
DL’s focus cities of RDU and AUS are successful and will stick around.
DL doesn’t want Florida crew bases because it will make it much harder to staff its pilot bases esp. in NYC.
as for how DL can make focus cities work, it is heavily because DL uses a much higher percentage of mainline aircraft at its hubs than AA and UA so it can use its fairly limited amount of RJs in mainline service.
AA uses large RJs to fly to both CLT and DFW where DL flies mainline aircraft to ATL and often DTW.
The 717s essentially replaced DL’s CRJ fleet and are now used to upgauge large RJ flights. The A220 is split between upgauges of large RJ flights and long-thin routes that are beyond with how DL uses its RJs.
AA AS and UA have opted not to obtain small mainline aircraft while DL has two fleets of them
NYC and BOS as well as RDU are heavily RJ based as are other point to point routes such as from BNA and AUS etc.
A few things:
1) Delta has had a FA base in Orlando for YEARS. I believe going back go legacy Delta before the merger with Northwest.
2) Delta has had a Sky Club in Orlando for YEARS. There are a lot of diamond medallions in central Florida. Just like Jacksonville in northern Florida.
3) I don’t think any of this is new. Delta has had a lot of flights in Orlando for years now. There are more Sky Team partners flying through Orlando, including Aeromexico and Virgin. It’s possible to build trips with connections in MCO. You can even fly intra-Florida on Delta from Orlando to Miami.
4) So, with respect, I’d say Delta had had a mini-hub in Orlando for a few years now. Whether it’s officially confirmed or not doesn’t matter. Remember, Delta has designated and un-designated Cincinnati and Raleigh as hubs or focus cities a few times.
5) In the case of Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, their international flights were heavily subsidized by the airport authorities/local governments.
6) Lastly, at this point, I’d even call Miami a focus city given the significant number of flights through Miami plus the connections on partners, including Air France, Virgin and LATAM.
MCO is ABSOLUTELY a crew base for f/a and pilots
Delta does not have any pilot bases in Florida
They have multiple flight attendant bases in Florida
It’s the least counter response DL can present to the Southwest – CAL partnership.
I just.
Tried looking omaha to orlando up on the website and there is no nonstop showing up
see in the article above.. these are winter seasonal
I looked up a flight in March and they’re not there.
DL flies DCA-MCO (along with several other point-to-point DCA flights). Anecdotally the MCO flights are always very full but I know that’s a very limited data point.
I could have sworn that MCO was considered a hub for Delta up until around 2007, and definitely was considered such pre-2000. The funny thing is that this was around the time that VS was hiking UK-MCO capacity, but well before VS and DL all but merged. Remember too that VS and DL have always used airside 4 at MCO. I believe the DL Skyclub at MCO dates back to the opening of that airside in 1990, since airside 4 was designed *especially for* DL’s hub there. There are even photos from the mid-1990s that show exclusively DL planes parked at every gate on that airside.