Delta international routes reduced; Asia traffic down 17.3%

While a key piece of the merger with Northwest Airlines was to immediately become a major player in the U.S./Asia market, it is the transpacific and intra-Asian market that has been the hardest hit when it comes to Delta’s international flights. Traffic this year is down 17.3 percent while capacity has only been reduced by 5.9 percent.

International flying for many years has been the bread and butter for the legacy and foreign flag carriers, while domestic routes have contributed very little. Now, with the harsh worldwide recession, international routes are being reduced, delayed or scraped altogether. Delta Airlines, which has been on an international growth spurt has quickly reversed course and now plans international capacity cuts of 15 percent. This is far more than the initial though that a three, five, or even 10 percent cutback might be necessary.

Despite the rough international skies, Delta plans to continue to grow their global footprint when the situation stabilizes. Realizing that this will be at least a couple of years into the future, Delta is taking advantage of their reasonable strong balance sheet and preparing for when they can re-build their international frequencies and place larger aircraft on certain routes. Not all international routes have been reduced, and a few new routes are still being introduced this year and next. But the overwhelming majority of international flying is being curtailed until the recession bottoms out and business travel begins to return.

The airline’s domestic traffic has slumped, but nowhere near to the degree of overseas routes. While Delta will eventually reap the benefits of the Tokyo hub that Northwest developed decades ago, the timing is turning out to be much different than even the brightest minds at the airline would have anticipated.

Perhaps the biggest route to be eliminated is the high profile one from Atlanta to Shanghai. Other routes going away include Atlanta to Seoul, Mumbai and Cape Town, South Africa. Delta’s smaller hub at Cincinnati is losing non-stop service to both Frankfurt and London, and JFK International Airport to Edinburgh, Scotland is also being suspended.

Looking to the future, Atlanta’s airport plan for a massive new international terminal are continuing, though it is pretty well assured that filling the building upon completion will take longer than originally projected. Delta continues to fly nearly 1,000 daily trips from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and there are no plans to reduce this dominant position.