Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

NW is quietly adding seats by filling in the routes that were 5 or 6 times a week and making them 1x daily. Here are the changes I spot in the recent timetable.

DTW + Sunday (D9S. Service now every day with other days being A319)
DTW + Saturday (D9S. Service now daily)
DTW + Saturday (D9S. Service now daily)
FLL + Sunday (1x daily now on D9S)
MCI + Sunday (CRJ. Service now daily)
MEM + Saturday (A319. Service now daily)
MSP + Saturday (A320. Service now daily)
MSP + Saturday (D9S. Service now daily)
RDU + Saturday (CRJ. Service now daily)

So they are adding 6 saturday flights and 2 sunday flights.

D9S = 100 seats each way
320 = 148 seats each way
319 = 124 seats each way
CRJ = 44 seats each way

Inbound and outbound totaled thats 1720 additional seats per week. Thats nearly the same as adding in three daily nonstops using their 44 seat CRJs. Not a bad little increase. That may not seem like much but thats 89,440 seats a year.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I'd still like to see them add more cities, though. Like PDX and SAN. And bring back AUS, DFW, and DEN. And while we're at it, JAX, SAV, and MSY would be nice to have, too.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Perhaps some of those cities will be added once the bankruptcy dust settles. BTW do you think the addition of the saturday flights might be to offer some feed for the Cancun flight that was extended all the way in to August?

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Possibly. Of all NW's "IND cities," SEA, MCI, SFO, LAS, BOS, BDL, RDU, MCO, TPA, and RSW do NOT have n/s service to CUN. But I still don't look at the NW IND service as being designed for connections. Would someone really fly from SEA, SFO, or LAS to CUN via IND? Who knows.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I would say RDU, MCI and BDL would be more likely targets for IND connections. I'd think most of those other cities already have nonstop CUN service with other airlines. It wouldn't take much. Maybe connecting only 20 or 30 people for the flight.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

I think Cancun does well enough on its own to warrant the exclusive Indianapolis nonstop service.

I wish Faremeasure or what have you would provide some more insight to how many passengers travel yearly between Indianapolis and Cancun.