After promising time after time that the Delta/Northwest merger would not result in the closure of any hubs, Delta take steps to close the Cincinnati Airport base.
One more example of where airlines speak with forked tongue.
The airline will be shutting down its crew base affecting 225 pilots. Delta’s flight from Cincinnati to Paris will still operate, however, the crew will be based elsewhere and have to commute to work.
At one time, Delta planned to add several international destinations from Cincinnati beyond the Paris service. But the memos say Delta’s ability to flow aircraft out of larger hubs, the increasing emphasis on New York’s JFK airport as an international gateway and the growth of New York’s LaGuardia Airport as its primary hub in the Northeast have caused those plans to change.
Back when the merger was being considered, pundits, myself included, noted that it would be about impossible for Delta to maintain four hubs — Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Memphis and Detroit — so close to each other. Our words were prophetic, based on the realities of air transportation. The Delta pronouncements were made only to get their merger approved.
Without the merger, Cincinnati would be the only Delta hub in the midwest and almost certainly would still be operating. The promises of cost savings still haven’t made it to Delta’s bottom line, but layoffs in Cincinnati are affecting the bottom lines of many locals.
Though Delta still lists Cincinnati as a “hub,” Delta officials that their airline’s current daily departures from Cincinnati only number roughly 165-175. More flights are handled in Memphis, another soon-to-forgotten “hub.”
I guess the concept of “hub” can be a reworked a bit in terms of definition.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
