Delta is rearranging its New
York-Chicago service as of Feb. 15 by
shifting some service from O'Hare to Midway and doubling its daily
flights to create a "shuttle-like" operation in one of the
country's biggest business travel markets.
Delta spokeswoman
Gina Laughlin said the changes are designed to appeal to business
travelers, because Midway is closer to downtown Chicago than
O'Hare.
LaGuardia-Midway
service, she said, "is the fastest way to get from downtown New
York to downtown Chicago."
The airline also
is increasing its service between Kennedy and O'Hare to better feed
traffic to its international flights out of Kennedy. Delta recently
decided to make Kennedy a Delta hub for international
service.
Delta will be
replacing its five daily nonstop flights between LaGuardia and
O'Hare with seven daily flights between LaGuardia and Midway. Delta
Connection carrier Shuttle America will still operate the service,
and it will continue to use Embraer 170 regional jets with six
first-class seats and 64 economy-class seats.
For
Kennedy-O'Hare, Delta currently offers one daily flight on
Bombardier 70-seat CRJ 700 regional jets operated by Delta
Connection carrier Comair. The expanded service will offer five
daily flights using 50-seat and 70-seat Bombardier jets, still
operated by Comair.
Delta said its
new and expanded service will offer customers a "Delta Shuttle-like
experience" with flights every two hours. The additions will double
Delta's daily flights between the cities to 12: seven for
LaGuardia-Midway and five for Kennedy-O'Hare.
That
"shuttle-like experience" will include operating LaGuardia flights
out of Delta's Marine Air Terminal there. That terminal, which
Delta describes as "conveniently located away from the high traffic
of LaGuardia's main terminals," is currently used only for its
Delta Shuttle flights between Washington, New York and
Boston.
Delta said the
terminal, which includes an American Express Business Center, also
is more business-friendly. In addition to the business center, it
also offers free coffee, newspapers and magazines.
Delta's biggest
competitors in the New York-Chicago market are United (which also
carries the US Airways code on some flights) and American. Both of
them have a hub at O'Hare, which may have made it difficult to
compete against them there.
Other New
York-Chicago players include Southwest code-share partner ATA,
which flies nonstop from LaGuardia to Midway and connects with
Southwest's sizable and growing operation there, as well as
Continental (Newark to both Midway and O'Hare) and AirTran
(Newark-Midway).
Also, Delta rival
JetBlue is launching nonstop service between Kennedy and O'Hare
Jan. 4 with five daily flights on weekdays and four on Sundays,
using A320s and its 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft.
To contact reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].