I find it odd that Delta flies this route since neither CLE or BDL is a hub or focus city. Is this Delta's only route that doesn't involve a hub or focus city?

It's probably DL's decent sized presence in BDL and the FF base that make this one work. I think DL is number 2 in BDL behind WN.

Delta flies DCA-OMA for some reason.....and AA doesn't !!

Do these flights have something to do with maintenance rotations?

Unlike AA and UA, DL sees value and demand in serving P2P routes. When UA cut CLE-BDL in 2014, DL started BDL-CLE and seeing that it has lasted 4 years clearly there is a demand for it, and I believe DL has numerous corporate contracts in CT.

asuflyer wrote:

Unlike AA and UA, DL sees value and demand in serving P2P routes. When UA cut CLE-BDL in 2014, DL started BDL-CLE and seeing that it has lasted 4 years clearly there is a demand for it, and I believe DL has numerous corporate contracts in CT.

I don't know who it is, but I agree it is a corporate contract

It must be subsidized by someone. It’s got 25+ seats open all week and the few times I’ve been on it it was half empty.

DL has made it part of their strategy to fly a good number of P2P routes particularly where they can leverage corporate contracts. CLE-BDL was a long standing route, operated by Continental, then United, until United dropped it once they de-hubbed CLE. There are businesses on both ends that use it and that helps sustain it.

One of the Insurance companies. Hartford is known for its many insurance companies with offices there. DL has a large FF base in the area as well .

They have served other p2p in the recent past. Pretty sure BDL-CMH was one of them.

Is BDL still a mail hub?

SDFguy wrote:

Is this Delta's only route that doesn't involve a hub or focus city?

No, there are countless others:
DCA-LEX/MSN/OMA/MIA
LAS-SJC/ONT
CUN-BWI/CMH/BDL/IND/MCI/MKE/BNA/MSY/PIT/TPA
CMH-MIA
There are more that I am missing, plus, there is all the MCO stuff, which technically isn't a focus city

Looking at their interactive Route Map on their website, there are actually quite a few P2P destinations DL offers.

727LOVER wrote:

Delta flies DCA-OMA for some reason.....and AA doesn't !!

DL has a few slots at DCA which fall under the Air21 program, which restricts where the airline can fly using those slots and I believe also may restrict transfer. I believe DL's flights from DCA to OMA, LEX and MSN are all using Air21 slots. If the routes are remotely profitable it probably makes sense to keep them rather than drop the route completely and give up a valuable slot at DCA.

spinkid wrote:

One of the Insurance companies. Hartford is known for its many insurance companies with offices there. DL has a large FF base in the area as well .

They have served other p2p in the recent past. Pretty sure BDL-CMH was one of them.

I think BDL-CMH was pretty directly related to the insurance industry. Not sure what the CLE connection to BDL is, but DL must see something profitable in the market to still be flying it.

enilria wrote:

I don't know who it is, but I agree it is a corporate contract

My bet would be on United Technologies.

ESPN (located in Bristol) could have filled a fair number of seats when Lebron James was still in Cleveland. ESPN televised a number of Cavalier home games. Agreed that there must be other corporate contracts to make this route work.

Indeed.... United Technologies, Disney (ESPN) and Deloitte are the top corporations flying the route.

evank516 wrote:

It's probably DL's decent sized presence in BDL and the FF base that make this one work. I think DL is number 2 in BDL behind WN.

Delta is actually the 3rd largest carrier at BDL now after AA and WN. Delta for years flew the most in/out of BDL with some years approaching 2 million passengers but that was when DL flew to multiple cities in Florida along with LAX, SLC and LAS service.

SDFguy wrote:

Is this Delta's only route that doesn't involve a hub or focus city?

IND-MCO/RSW/MIA/CUN
CMH-MCO/RSW/MIA/CUN
MCO-Lots of places
CUN-Lots of places
LAS-SNA/SJC/SAN/HNL
HNL-FUK/NGO/KIX/PDX/SFO
MIA-MCO/CMH/DCA/IND/HAV/DCA

Definitely a few others as well

masseybrown wrote:

enilria wrote:

I don't know who it is, but I agree it is a corporate contract

My bet would be on United Technologies.

Actually, it's Eaton.

Why does Delta fly CLE-BDL?


I'm going to go with Because they think they can make money doing it.

Busyboy2 wrote:

Why does Delta fly CLE-BDL?


I'm going to go with Because they think they can make money doing it.

Not necessarily. The route itself may be a money loser, but necessary to attain a large contract that yields overall profitability.

But it also gets removed during low (business) demand periods. It's not flying next week. And it doesn't fly during the Christmas schedule.

cvgComair (Reply 11), Delta does not fly DCA - MIA.

e38

e38 wrote:

cvgComair (Reply 11), Delta does not fly DCA - MIA.

e38

You sure about that? Check next March

LHUSA wrote:

Indeed.... United Technologies, Disney (ESPN) and Deloitte are the top corporations flying the route.

I see someone is sharing PRISM data. Naughty Naughty, but correct.

Midwestindy wrote:

SDFguy wrote:

Is this Delta's only route that doesn't involve a hub or focus city?

IND-MCO/RSW/MIA/CUN
CMH-MCO/RSW/MIA/CUN
MCO-Lots of places
CUN-Lots of places
LAS-SNA/SJC/SAN/HNL
HNL-FUK/NGO/KIX/PDX/SFO
MIA-MCO/CMH/DCA/IND/HAV/DCA

Definitely a few others as well

There is a huge difference between all of those routes that you mentioned and CLE-BDL. Those are vacation destinations, and all the demand comes from people wanting to travel to those destinations (eg. MCO for Disney/amusement parks, CUN for resorts, etc.). CLE and BDL are far from vacation destinations. Delta does not really have a reason to fly between the two unless they have a contract, like what was mentioned above, and/or there is some kind of unusual demand between the two cities.

Also they may have crew and plane sitting doing nothing when it can add a leg and make more money. Remember those passengers might connect on the other end to more profitable flights.

Midwestindy wrote:

e38 wrote:

cvgComair (Reply 11), Delta does not fly DCA - MIA.

e38

You sure about that? Check next March

Present tense is a thing. It looks like a single Saturday turn on an E175, but that's next March.

N766UA wrote:

It must be subsidized by someone. It’s got 25+ seats open all week and the few times I’ve been on it it was half empty.

Even though this route no doubt sees low LFs, no doubt the average one-Way fare is sky high.

727LOVER wrote:

Delta flies DCA-OMA for some reason.....and AA doesn't !!

That’s funny because Western Airlines, for a few years before the merger with Delta, served that exact route (SLC-OMA-DCA-OMA-SLC). Kind of full circle!

PDX-NRT

Dominion301 wrote:

N766UA wrote:

It must be subsidized by someone. It’s got 25+ seats open all week and the few times I’ve been on it it was half empty.

Even though this route no doubt sees low LFs, no doubt the average one-Way fare is sky high.

That’s certainly true. Apparently their break-even is low enough to justify t

cvgComair wrote:

SDFguy wrote:

Is this Delta's only route that doesn't involve a hub or focus city?

No, there are countless others:
DCA-LEX/MSN/OMA/MIA
LAS-SJC/ONT
CUN-BWI/CMH/BDL/IND/MCI/MKE/BNA/MSY/PIT/TPA
CMH-MIA
There are more that I am missing, plus, there is all the MCO stuff, which technically isn't a focus city

Delta doesn't have a flight from LAS to ONT.

winginit wrote:

LHUSA wrote:

Indeed.... United Technologies, Disney (ESPN) and Deloitte are the top corporations flying the route.

I see someone is sharing PRISM data. Naughty Naughty, but correct.

What is PRISM data?

SDFguy wrote:

winginit wrote:

LHUSA wrote:

Indeed.... United Technologies, Disney (ESPN) and Deloitte are the top corporations flying the route.

I see someone is sharing PRISM data. Naughty Naughty, but correct.

What is PRISM data?

PRISM is a data aggregation system (owned by Sabre) that houses sales data between the major airlines and corporations/agencies that they contract with. It's the basis of corporate contracting. Access to PRISM allows you to see who the top corporations are on a given O&D.

But UA has a greater presence in CLE and still operates few routes outside the UA hubs (TPA, MCO, BOS) in US, I wonder why UA did not get back to this route.

I fly this route and fares really are inexpensive. If I plan ahead 3 weeks or so a weekend stay even prime time Friday to Monday is low $200s. I'm thinking of a last minute trip this weekend, nonstop flight Friday, connect coming home on a day when the flight doesn't operate and the fare is $485. I once had to buy a round trip on the day of travel and paid $600 for Friday to Monday, which is in theory prime time in both directions. Maybe a lot of people are paying this fare, it's hard to know, but for same day it really could be a lot worse than that.

I think if the flight wasn't operating the aircraft would just be sitting waiting for a flight to or from Minny or Detroit, so with the corporate contract DL figures better to keep the plane earning money. If the plane got a lot of ESPN traffic, well Delta can kiss most of that good bye.

By the way some of you may remember DL briefly, briefly, operated IND/CLE after the hub closed, also a once daily end of day/beginning of day type of schedule. Something about that route didn't cut it but RDU and BDL does cut it.

stlgph wrote:

masseybrown wrote:

enilria wrote:

I don't know who it is, but I agree it is a corporate contract

My bet would be on United Technologies.

Actually, it's Eaton.

Don't count out Aetna. They have a large regional office in suburban Richfield.