Site Admin

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

Starting September 3rd (I think that is the exact date) Delta sends its first 757 to IND. Not sure if it is the first ever but I don't ever recall us getting scheduled 757 service. Starting November 1st the 757 service goes twice daily to ATL.

Member

Joined: 06 Jan 2007
Posts: 106
Location:

Wow, this is great news. I wonder if this is a sign that they plan to keep NWA's focus city here and are just ramping up service to ATL in preparation of routing more connections through there.

Site Admin

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

I had thought they were shifting to fewer flights on larger aircraft. But they're keeping 8 dailies to ATL.

Currently they fly 5 MD-88s and 3 E170s IND-ATL weekdays. In mid-late Sept, they drop one of the E170s for an additional MD88. In mid-late Oct, they have an E175, an E170, 4 MD-88s, a 737, and the 757.

So they're shifting from a daily IND-ATL seat capacity of 920 now to 992 in Sep, to 1057 in Oct.

Now in Nov, they have switched the 737 with a second 757, bumping the capacity up to 1080.

Interestingly, Airtran currently has 508 seats daily on this route with 2 717s and 2 737s. They increase that slightly in October by substituting another 737 for one of the 717s, taking it to 528 seats. Then go back to 508 in November and then down to 488 seats (3 717s and 1 737) in December. I'm not sure if these are real schedule changes or the natural rotation of their equipment. But one thing is clear, FL is not increasing their capacity to match DL. So I'd speculate that DL's moves are competitively aimed at Airtran rather than anything to do with keeping NW's focus city ops here.