By Joey Gerardi
Delta Shifts Northeast Regional Schedule to Favor LaGuardia
Airlines around the world change their schedules constantly, and that’s not anything new. But over the last couple of months, Delta has had a considerable amount of shift in its schedule, most of which includes moving away from its Detroit hub on small regional jets.
Detroit to Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Allentown, Penn. ; and Dayton, Ohio, all routes which have already ended this Fall and were scheduled on the 50-seat CRJ-200. Detroit to Fort Wayne and Minneapolis to Moline, Ill. operated on a mix of aircraft from the CRJ-200 and CRJ-900 also have ended this Fall.
Detroit to South Bend, which operates on the CRJ-900 ends in less than a week on Nov. 8, 2022. Most of the routes previously mentioned only operated on a once-daily basis, moving away from the low-frequency flights on these small aircraft to smaller and mid-sized cities. In the recently changed new schedule, there are more cuts coming for the carrier’s Detroit-Metro hub, which seems to be taking most of the service cuts this Fall and into Winter.
State College, Penn., Binghamton, N.Y., and Ithaca, N.Y. all of which currently receive only a single daily service from Detroit in the middle of the day. The two New York cities’ flights operate on 50-seat CRJ-200s while State College flights operate on CRJ-700s. But come Jan. 9, 2023, all three of the cities will no longer see nonstop flights to Detroit. State College and Binghamton will both get twice daily flights to New York-LaGuardia, while Ithaca will get twice daily service to New York-JFK. All three new services will be on CRJ-900s which are operated by Delta’s subsidiary Endeavor Air.
A Delta Connection CRJ-900 operated by Endeavor Air (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
These will be the sixth, seventh, and eighth cities that Detroit will lose in a matter of five months, showing a shift of regional jet service away from the Detroit hub to the New York City area. These are not the first shorter routes that Delta has announced from the New York City area this year, as the airline started its shortest route from LaGuardia which goes to Hartford, Conn., just over two months ago on Sept. 6, 2022. Binghamton will become the third shortest route from LaGuardia at 147 miles, after previously mentioned Hartford, Conn. at 101 miles and LaGuardia to Albany, N.Y. which sits at 136 miles.
Despite the loss of Destinations for Detroit, those in the Southern Tier of New York state now have more choices than ever about where they want to connect with Delta Air Lines. Elmira, N.Y., is located just over 30 miles from Ithaca and still has twice daily flights to Detroit on CRJ-900s meaning people in the region can now choose between the three southern tier airports depending on where they would like their connection to be, as each airport now has its own hub they serve.
People headed west can now fly out of Elmira through Detroit, those headed within the Northeast and South can fly out of Binghamton through LaGuardia, and those heading to international destinations can fly out of Ithaca through JFK.
All the destinations Delta has ended from Detroit this fall or coming January (Screenshot: GreatCircleMapper)
All information and flight schedule data were pulled from Delta’s website
Joe has always been interested in planes, for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. When he has the time (and money) he likes to take spotting trips to any location worth a visit. He’s currently enrolled at Western Michigan University earning a degree in Aviation Management and Operations.
