Pittsburgh International Airport

American answers Delta’s expansion in Los Angeles with its own new push from LAX

American Airlines is joining its US legacy rival Delta during 2013 in making a push from Los Angeles International Airport, a strategic but highly fragmented market where no one carrier holds a dominant, commanding position. Presently United has a marginal edge over its two rivals in terms of seat share, but it appears that American and Delta are aiming to close that gap by adding new service from Los Angeles throughout the year.

Unlike Delta, which is launching service to some already-crowded markets from Los Angeles, American appears to be undertaking a different strategy, introducing service in markets served by only one other carrier. In some instances the only other competitor is Allegiant Air, which is a low-frequency operator whose business model is not built on competing with other airlines based on schedules. In other markets Delta is American’s lone competitor, introducing an interesting set of competitive dynamics into the Los Angeles market.

Delta’s new push to Paris confronts United and shows commitment to SkyTeam amid alliance shifts

Major shifts in the three major global airline alliances during the last few weeks have triggered a bevy questions regarding the future of those tie-ups. But just as Qantas attempts to forge a broad agreement with unaligned Emriates, British Airways has convinced reluctant members to allow Qatar to join oneworld and Air France has reversed its stance to embrace Etihad and airberlin, SkyTeam partners Delta and Air France are bolstering their presence in the US-France market.

It is not clear if Delta could benefit from the new Air France-Etihad tie-up that entails codesharing on flights to Abu Dhabi, but eventually Delta’s connecting customers in Paris could utlilise connections to the Middle East opened up by the new non-SkyTeam partnership.

Beginning in the northern hemisphere summer of 2013, Delta is introducing new flights from Newark Liberty International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle, and new seasonal flights from Boston to Paris. Delta also plans to add another daily flight from its Atlanta hub to Paris, which will increase to four the combined number of daily services offered by Delta and Air France on the pairing.

Delta’s latest cuts inch Memphis closer in size to downgraded Cincinnati hub

A continued pare-down by Delta Air Lines of its Memphis hub that includes the elimination of approximately 56 weekly frequencies and three route cuts beginning in Aug-2012 will result in Memphis having a similar size in Delta’s network as the carrier’s Cincinnati hub, which has become increasingly marginalised since the 2008 merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines.

The latest pruning in Memphis by Delta should result in a decrease to approximately 125 daily departures by the carrier from the airport, down from a peak of approximately 300 in 2000, or a reduction of nearly 42%. As of Jul-2012 Delta estimated it offered 147 peak day departures from its Memphis hub.

Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and St Louis airports most affected by carriers' moves over past decade

CAPA Centre for Aviation has assessed the winners and losers among US airports over the past decade and three have been especially affected by their primary carriers: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and St Louis. Recent OAG data provides a clear picture of just what has happened in these locations in those 10 years.