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Memphis a hub no more? Delta cuts prompt speculation

Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
In this photo from April 5, 2012, a Delta Air Lines sign welcomes customers to its Memphis hub.

Delta Air Lines will pare its Memphis flight schedule yet again, a move sure to renew speculation about the city's long-term future as U.S. airline hub.

Delta announced this week that it will reduce its Memphis flight schedule by about 18% as fewer passengers are flying on flights to, from or through the city, according to The Commercial Appeal of Memphis.

Delta is dropping all of its nonstop service between Memphis and both Birmingham, Ala., and Jacksonville, Fla. Additionally, Delta's Memphis-Fort Lauderdale service – which had become seasonal – now will be discontinued altogether, according to the Memphis Business Journal.

Delta also will reduce the number of daily flights it offers between Memphis and other 11 cities. Routes News says Delta will trim one daily round-trip flight from its daily schedules between Memphis and the following cities: Jackson, Miss.; Kansas City; Knoxville; Little Rock; Nashville; Raleigh/Durham; St. Louis; San Antonio and Tulsa.

CAPA Centre for Aviation says Delta also will cut its Memphis-Los Angeles schedule, axing five flights from its weekly schedule between those cities.

"The markets that have been impacted by the cuts specifically were underperforming from a passenger demand and revenue performance standpoint," Delta spokesman Anthony Black tells the Commercial Appeal.

When the cuts take effect this winter – most come in January – Delta's daily departure count in Memphis will fall from 115 to 94, according to the Commercial Appeal.

The latest cuts will leave Memphis as the smallest hub in Delta's route network, undercutting Cincinnati – which has also been hit with sweeping cuts made by Delta.

The 2013 cuts announced for Memphis also come on the heels of several rounds of cuts Delta had already made in Memphis during the past few years..

It was just in March 2011 that Delta president Ed Bastian proclaimed reductions announced then would "improve the performance of the hub by trimming unprofitable flying … ."

CAPA – which offers an in-depth look at Memphis' hub challenges – says the city "suffers from a geographical disadvantage in relation to Delta's mega hub in Atlanta, and also has a fair number of markets operated with 50-seat regional jets, an aircraft Delta is busy ridding itself of in favour of larger-gauge aircraft. Those elements continue to work against Memphis … ," CAPA adds in its analysis.

Meanwhile, Delta's Memphis cuts have drawn the ire of Tennessee congressman Steve Cohen.

The Democratic Representative has accused Delta of breaking promises it made about Memphis as it sought to win regulatory approval to merge with Northwest, which operated the Memphis hub that Delta inherited in the merger.

Cohen says Delta management – including CEO Richard Anderson – had promised Memphis would not suffer service cuts as a result of the 2008 merger. Northwest and Delta had a combined 238 daily departures from Memphis just before the merger, according to the Commercial Appeal.

Among Cohen's biggest complaints is that he says he was assured that Memphis would keep its flight to Amsterdam, which Delta announced it would cut earlier this year.

The loss of the Amsterdam route – as well as previous cuts – prompted Cohen to issue this Oct. 31 press release in which the congressman blasted Delta for a "growing string of broken promises" about its commitment to Memphis.

Delta disputes Cohen's charges, noting that the cuts now taking place are coming nearly five years after Delta made its pledges at the time of the Northwest merger.

"Any operational assurance that Delta provided officials was under the understanding that any action to the contrary would not be directly related to the merger", Delta spokesman Black says to Memphis TV station WREG.

"Specifically, (rising) fuel costs, the current international economic environment, lack of passenger demand and profitability have been the primary drivers of all network restructuring," Black says to WREG in explaining Delta's decision to pare back its Memphis schedule.

Congressional outrage or not, Memphis airport officials sound resigned to Memphis' fading odds as remaining a hub city.

Larry Cox, CEO of the Shelby County Airport Authority that runs the Memphis airport, tells the Commercial Appeal he expects Memphis' flight schedule to eventually mirror that of airports in St. Louis or Nashville – cities that have lost hub status during the past two decades and airports where flight schedules have shifted to routes demanded by local passengers instead of ones that need the support of connecting fliers.

"When those hubs reduced in size, you eventually get to a point where you're not a transfer hub anymore but more of a point-to-point place," Cox says to the Commercial Appeal.

Or, as Memphis TV station WREG put it, "It means the empty airport we're accustomed to is just going to get emptier."

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