DL moves year round ZRH service to JFK

[WorldTraveler]

in an effort to increase its corporate contract appeal, DL is moving its year round ZRH flight from ATL to JFK. DL has flown ATL-ZRH on a year round basis for years and JFK on a summer seasonal basis but is swapping the flights as of this winter.

here is the first part of the move...

http://airlineroute.net/2014/04/24/dl-atlzrh-s14/

AA and UA both fly NYC-ZRH on a year round basis and both do fairly well in the market.

 

[FWAAA]

How could AA possibly do "fairly well" operating JFK-ZRH given the lack of connecting feed at JFK?   AA doesn't operate hundreds of CRJs from JFK to connect every two-bit town up and down the east coast with this flight, so how could AA possibly do doing "fairly well?"

Is it possible that NYC-ZRH is one of those markets that relies primarily on local traffic and flights can be topped-off with connecting passengers from a dozen or so of the nation's biggest cities, some inside the LGA perimeter (like BOS, MIA, etc) and some outside the LGA perimeter (like SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN, LAS, PHX, etc)?   

 

[WorldTraveler]

because JFK-ZRH is a historically strong market which AA has flown for years and DL hasn't bothered to try to challenge AA in.

It is precisely because it is a local market that AA does well in that DL wants a piece of it... and corporate clients have told DL that flying it year round is necessary.

I don't think DL took cancelling ATL-ZRH on a year round basis lightly given they have operated that route for years. But DL also has flown to central Europe long enough to know they aren't in a position to fly two routes profitably during the winter so they are focusing on JFK.

It speaks fairly strongly to how well NYC is doing for DL that they are willing to start focusing on the very few competitive advantages that AA still has and that DL hasn't revisited after having served them in the past.

 

[BABABOOY]

here is the first part of the move...

http://airlineroute.net/2014/04/24/dl-atlzrh-s14/

 

Do you have the second part of the announcement stating that JFK infact is going year round?  

 

[WorldTraveler]

check delta.com from JFK-ZRH for Nov 1 which is after the date the summer seasonal flights usually end.

or Dec 10 or...

 

[topDawg]

in an effort to increase its corporate contract appeal, DL is moving its year round ZRH flight from ATL to JFK. DL has flown ATL-ZRH on a year round basis for years and JFK on a summer seasonal basis but is swapping the flights as of this winter.

here is the first part of the move...

http://airlineroute.net/2014/04/24/dl-atlzrh-s14/

AA and UA both fly NYC-ZRH on a year round basis and both do fairly well in the market.

yet another route started with the plan for both to operate in the winter. 
 
Good thing this JV is costing jobs and all. Can not wait to see DALPA put Delta in its place of the JV and 117 here soon. Hopefully they act like a real union. 

 

[WorldTraveler]

who said DL ever intended to operate JFK-ZRH year round?

DL last operated two flights/day during the winter when Swissair was a partner of DL's and ATL was operated by them on a 747 IIRC.

DL still is operating the same amount of capacity to ZRH since JFK-ZRH was added as a summer seasonal route. The only difference is that JFK becomes year round while ATL is the seasonal route.

ZRH isn't the first city that DL has done this to as part of its move to increase its presence in NYC, a far more competitive market.

 

[WorldTraveler]

The JFK-ZRH service is part of a larger addition of DL operated flights during the winter that involves AMS, CDG, FCO, and ZRH.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-air-lines-expand-europe-135500863.html

 

[topDawg]

who said DL ever intended to operate JFK-ZRH year round?

DL last operated two flights/day during the winter when Swissair was a partner of DL's and ATL was operated by them on a 747 IIRC.

DL still is operating the same amount of capacity to ZRH since JFK-ZRH was added as a summer seasonal route. The only difference is that JFK becomes year round while ATL is the seasonal route.

ZRH isn't the first city that DL has done this to as part of its move to increase its presence in NYC, a far more competitive market.

leadership when it started? Delta, during its big growth in Europe, never started a route to operate it seasonal. 
 
Of course now its just about outsourcing as much as possible to AF/KL
 

The JFK-ZRH service is part of a larger addition of DL operated flights during the winter that involves AMS, CDG, FCO, and ZRH.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-air-lines-expand-europe-135500863.html

no extra flights to AMS from Delta. 
 
It nets one extra flight to FCO, Delta is still well below its minums in the DALPA agreement. I can't wait to see the Union force more Delta flying. 

 

[WorldTraveler]

DL operates dozens of routes on a summer seasonal basis - 4-6 months/year depending on the market.

I don't think DL has operated more than one flight on a year round basis since the DL-Swissair relationship ended.

If they have let me know.

DL dropped JFK-ZRH and didn't even fly the route on a seasonal basis for years.

It will be interesting to see how DL and ALPA handle this. Obviously I want to see both sides hold up their side of the agreement, and since DL does the schedules, they are responsible if there isn't the level of flying that was promised.

I also will say that I don't like regional approaches to mandating capacity, even given the alliance relationships.

DL is adding capacity in other parts of the world where it makes sense. DL's capacity is UP on a system basis. There needs to be a broader understanding of what DL is doing and working within what makes business sense and not just trying to force some contractual requirement if it doesn't make sense.

DALPA is a very business responsive group of employees compared to many airline unions. The company shouldn't take advantage of that.