The rapid decline of Delta’s operations at their former hub in Cincinnati is somewhat unparalleled. In a roughly ten year span the carrier has slashed daily flight operations by a two-thirds and the total number of passengers passing through the airport is down over 30%. Those cuts aren’t quite as bad as the effects of their decision to de-hub Dallas-Ft. Worth but they are still rather significant. And the hits just keep on coming.
The carrier notified its pilots last week that they intend to close the 767-300ER pilot base at the airport at some point in 2010. This move comes as Delta shifts its planes around in the network, moving most of the 763ERs toward the northwestern United States to offer service to Asia from there. The move will affect over 200 pilots who are currently based at CVG. It is expected to have limited effects on the overall operations at the airport, however, as there is currently only one intercontinental destination being served from there – Paris – and that route is expected to remain in service.
It cannot come as much of a surprise that the service is shifting away from Cincinnati. The airline has another hub in Detroit, just 230 miles away, thanks to the merger with Northwest Airlines and that hub has historically been much stronger. In the end there had to be cuts made in order for the merger to result in profits and Cincinnati was pretty much always looking down the barrel of that gun. It seems that Delta has finally decided to pull that trigger.
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- The continuing decline of Cincinnati’s air service
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C’est la vie. I’ll miss CVG but it’s not a huge loss. Too bad they can’t transport the very easy to use airport to NYC to replace T2/3.