Delta CVG divorce leave passengers orphaned
- Thread starter jimntx
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WorldTraveler
Corn Field
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I well remember when DL opened its CVG hub and called it Cin-sational. In the era of hub and spoke operations, CVG became an instant success. As we well know, though, CVG was built on a small local market, a high proportion of regional jets, and in the midwest where there are hubs in half of the cities with over a million people.
It is a shame to see so all the money that was invested in CVG both by DL and the public but it CVG is not the first hub to be downsized nor will it be the last. Consolidation in the airline industry means a lot less regional jet flights, fewer hubs, and what the flights and hubs that are left will increasingly be much larger.
It is worth noting that DL has repeatedly tried to get CVG to reduce its rent on the facilities that it no longer wants in return for releasing some of those facilities. DL's requests have largely been turned down by an airport that is understanding not willing to guarantee that they can fill ANY of the facilities that DL wants to abandon.
What IS different between DL and other hub closures is that DL STILL maintains its 80% share of the local market and CVG is still a fairly high priced market. As much as CVG would like to see another carrier in CVG, it is not terribly likely to happen as long as carriers that might want to set up shop know that they are going to have to battle DL for the local market. DL and other carriers can easily carry the flow traffic that a potential new CVG hub carrier might offer over CVG but DL is the carrier that will defend its local market which is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year. CVG is one of the few, if not the only hub, that has been dismantled and in which the former hub carrier still dominates the local market. As long as DL has a local market at stake, they are going to fight to protect it. It is doubtful that the rent reductions that the airport could offer based on DL's current actual facility needs would be enough to get them an incentive to not fight to keep the local market - which means the ability of another carrier to succeed at CVG are very limited.
...which makes the whole notion of the article misleading... the local CVG passengers have not been orphaned because DL is still carrying them, albeit perhaps on fewer nonstops and perhaps on connections over other hubs.
CVG still has very good air service for a city of its size.
S
SkyguyB727
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From what I've seen, there are many more regional jet flights now than there ever were in the past. So many routes that used to be mainline with so many airlines are now operated by RJs. RJs dominate the industry domestically.
Kev3188
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CVG isn't closed... yet...
MEM stays long after CVG is a fond memory, IMO. It's ridiculously cheap to operate out of, isn't very congested at all, and can serve as a reliever for ATL.
MEM stays long after CVG is a fond memory, IMO. It's ridiculously cheap to operate out of, isn't very congested at all, and can serve as a reliever for ATL.
The people of Cincinnati-- my home town-- have complained about Delta for years. News features about the high airfares were commonplace, but they rarely mentioned that Cincinnati was a small city with an impressive amount of air service. The business community flourished with so many nonstop flights.
Soon, the people of Cincinnati will get their low airfares. They'll just have to connect through Chicago, Atlanta, or Charlotte to reach their destination.
Soon, the people of Cincinnati will get their low airfares. They'll just have to connect through Chicago, Atlanta, or Charlotte to reach their destination.
WorldTraveler
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DL has reduced CVG to a large focus city - which means they STILL have more than 80% of the $1B/year local market and they carry enough connecting traffic to keep some key longhaul markets functioning. It is not likely unless there is a dramatic downturn in the industry that DL will further reduce much in CVG.... also note that DL has seasonally added capacity during the summer and then pulled it in the winter....lots of people are interpreting the regular fall/winter pulldowns as further signs of the death of the hub when in fact DL has only pulled and added some of the same capacity.
CVG was added as DL's attempt to have a midwest hub - and it was largely built with regional jets since Comair was one of the pioneer carriers of the RJ in the US. The RJ doesn't work at current fuel price levels - which appear to be here to stay. CVG is also sandwiched between DTW and ATL, two hubs which are both larger, more established and have more international potential.
MEM continues to exist because it serves the purpose of connecting the deep south west of Georgia to the west, a role that DFW used to have, which DL tried to replicate with the CO codeshare over Houston, but which is strategically necessary for DL to maintain. Like CVG, there is enough of a local market (MEM is about 75% of the size of CVG) but there is enough connecting traffic that can be carried over the hub to justify keeping key flights. Further, MEM is far enough west that it does allow DL to serve some smaller markets with RJs that are beyond the economic range of ATL.
It is true that between one-fourth to one-third of domestic capacity is carried on regional jets... but DL is the only network carrier that so far is reversing that trend by growing mainline domestic capacity and reducing regional carrier capacity, largely by removing many 50 seat jets from the contract arrangements. It is possible that with the UA-CO merger, they too will remove regional jet capacity as they consolidate hubs and if so, that would be welcome to many passengers, and to many network carrier airline employees.
CVG was added as DL's attempt to have a midwest hub - and it was largely built with regional jets since Comair was one of the pioneer carriers of the RJ in the US. The RJ doesn't work at current fuel price levels - which appear to be here to stay. CVG is also sandwiched between DTW and ATL, two hubs which are both larger, more established and have more international potential.
MEM continues to exist because it serves the purpose of connecting the deep south west of Georgia to the west, a role that DFW used to have, which DL tried to replicate with the CO codeshare over Houston, but which is strategically necessary for DL to maintain. Like CVG, there is enough of a local market (MEM is about 75% of the size of CVG) but there is enough connecting traffic that can be carried over the hub to justify keeping key flights. Further, MEM is far enough west that it does allow DL to serve some smaller markets with RJs that are beyond the economic range of ATL.
It is true that between one-fourth to one-third of domestic capacity is carried on regional jets... but DL is the only network carrier that so far is reversing that trend by growing mainline domestic capacity and reducing regional carrier capacity, largely by removing many 50 seat jets from the contract arrangements. It is possible that with the UA-CO merger, they too will remove regional jet capacity as they consolidate hubs and if so, that would be welcome to many passengers, and to many network carrier airline employees.
eolesen
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Ten years ago, DFW was still considered a hub for DL with something like 20-30% market share. I saw a statistic yesterday that showed that US is now bigger at DFW (2.7% share) than DL (2.4% share).
Who knows what's going to happen to CVG. They have 80% of the market, but for how long? As elite status expires, some of those faithful who found it harder to requalify are going to drop DL and fly someone else.
Who knows what's going to happen to CVG. They have 80% of the market, but for how long? As elite status expires, some of those faithful who found it harder to requalify are going to drop DL and fly someone else.
WorldTraveler
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DL never had more than 20% market share in DFW, which was part of the problem.. they could never crack the local market. As you well know, ORD is now the only airport that has two network carriers hubbing there.
Your statistics is unfortunately not accurate based on DOT data. IN the most recent quarter, DL carried about 12% more passengers and revenue from DFW than US.
DL is the 2nd largest airline at DFW and that will not change with the CO/UA merger based on their current shares.
What is interesting to note is that DL has passed AA as the largest network carrier at both BNA and RDU, former AA hubs. Even though those cities ended as AA hubs years ago, AA remained the largest network carrier but that changed in the past six months. Further, while AA has pulled down capacity in STL by 33% over the past year, DL has increased it by 60% even when accounting for the end of the NW operation in the past six months. DL now has about 80% of the capacity at STL that AA does. In addition, based on current schedules, DL will bypass AA as the largest network airline at BOS on both domestic and international, a title that AA has held for years.
While there have been predictions of DL's demise at CVG for years, they continue to hold onto the local market. IN fact, there are very few major markets from CVG where DL is not the largest carrier by share and even when the carrier with the hub on the other end (such as AA in DFW) is larger, the other carrier is more than 10 points larger than DL... thus no more than a 60/40 split. It is precisely because DL has maintained its lead in the local market overall and still has maintained a near equivalent share even to other carrier hubs that no network carrier is likely to take CVG from DL. When you consider that CVG is surrounded by low cost carrier operations in other cities, providing little incentive for any carrier to engage in a costly battle with DL. Even in SLC - a market that is 40% larger than CVG and which WN has had a presence for years, WN has not managed to obtain more than about 15% of the revenue.
In PIT, a market in which US walked away from key markets, US still manages to be the largest carrier with 25% of the revenue share while WN has half of that.
Unless DL walks away from the key markets in CVG, it is not likely they will lose the local revenue or that a low fare carrier will find it worth their while to try to set up an operation large enough to successfully compete with DL.
Even with DL's reduction in CVG service, they still have nonstops to the top markets and provide CVG with transoceanic service which exists in only a handful of markets in the midwest.
