Title says it all, which discontinued routes would you like to see it returning?

EWR-HAM

With AA and UA operating flights to my hometown of COU out of DEN, DFW, and ORD, I would like to see DL return to the COU market and revive the ATL-COU route, so that all of the US3 airlines operate and that pax have more choices of which preferred airline they want to fly without the two-hour drive to either MCI or STL.

Until recently, it was BFL-DFW. I spent most of my summers growing up, from 1970 to 1983, driving from Bakersfield to Charleston, Arkansas, (25 miles east of Fort Smith) with my dad, mom, and little sister. My mom's parents lived there, and we spent 4-6 weeks each summer there. It was a seemingly endless journey at 45-50 mph in dad's 1970 VW camper, taking three entire days to get to Arkansas. We also toured the rest of the country, including my aunts in Missouri and Nebraska, family friends in Colorado, Zion National Park in Utah, and the final stop of Las Vegas to visit my dad's mom.

In the summer of 1984, I stayed home and worked (while in college), and that autumn BFL started getting AA to DFW. And the first time we flew BFL-DFW-FSM - and went door to door in less than eight hours. Compared to the drive, this was the equivalent of a Star Trek transporter!

Then it went away...but its return means it is an option for my mom.

As for me personally, the brief period of time in 2007-2008 when ExpressJet flew SAN-BFL non-stop was amazing - 42 minutes wheels up to wheels down versus a 4+ hour drive through Los Angeles...I would LOVE to have that option again! Heartbreaking that Fresno can sustain 2 (and maybe 3!), but Bakersfield can't sustain one...

Any international route out of BWI! Air Jamaica to MBJ, Air Greenland to SFJ, KL to AMS, EI to DUB, and others.

YHZ-AMS: KLM used to fly it as a stop on the way to YYZ. Then Canada Customs decided that everyone had to clear customs at the first landing point in the country. That killed the YHZ stop.

Later, Canada 3000 flew the route... but they went belly up after 9/11. I think Canadian Pacific also flew the route way back when.

Nowadays it could be done on a MAX or a NEO. It would be a nice option.

EIN-TXL. HV flew this route in the past but they moved it to RTM. Worst decision ever. Later they switched TXL for SXF.

I’d love the TWA 747 from bos to Jfk!

Bring back New York Air's IAD-ISP route (especially if you also bring back the DC-9s that operated it!)

GRR-YYZ on AC.

Edit: I'd also like to see DL get the EAS contract for MKG back so that route is MKG-DTW again instead of ORD on UA.

CPH - SEA (SK)
CPH - LCY (BA Cityflyer)

JNB-MIA
JNB-BKK
JNB-EZE

WAW-DUB on EI or LO. There used to be 3 airlines serving the route, Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Norwegian, and now it's just Ryanair whose service isn't even daily, and its from WMI, Warsaw's secondary airport, which is a lot less convenient to get to than WAW. I'm honestly very surprised that either the demand isn't there, or it isn't being served, as there are quite a lot of Polish people in Ireland.

DL ATL-SWF. When I lived near SWF, it was much easier than dealing with going up to ALB, HPN, or BDL for a nonstop. There are a lot of people who prefer the ease of SWF and would fly out there if they had more service that wasn't geared towards vacationers.

BOS-ISP, while short as the crow flies, would be good given all the land-based alternatives are either roundabout, a headache, or both.

SQ SIN-BOM-MAN.

SQ used to fly BOM-MAN till 2001 I think. Would love to have that route reinstated.

SQ IAH - DME - SIN
UA IAH - LOS, CCS, La Paz
IAD - ACC

LH FRA - LHE, KHI, MCT, DOH, AUH, KUL, HYD
BA LHR - ISB, DMM, YYC
SK: IAH - SVG
SQ: SIN - LHE
KL: AMS - KHI, JED, DOH, RUH
RJ: AMM - Pakistan
Air India DEL - Pakistan
GF: BAH - IAH, JFK, SYD

QF SYD-ICN (QF actually briefly served ICN in the mid-to-late 2000s, and not just the old SEL airport)
NZ AKL-ICN (previously served SEL)
SQ SFO-ICN, BKK-ICN or TPE-ICN
SB NOU-ICN
AY HEL-YYZ
SK CPH-YYZ

CX: HKG - KHI

B0pp0 wrote:

DL ATL-SWF. When I lived near SWF, it was much easier than dealing with going up to ALB, HPN, or BDL for a nonstop. There are a lot of people who prefer the ease of SWF and would fly out there if they had more service that wasn't geared towards vacationers.

BOS-ISP, while short as the crow flies, would be good given all the land-based alternatives are either roundabout, a headache, or both.

x2 on the SWF-ATL. The company I work for is headquartered in Atlanta and avoiding JFK/LGA would be a dream come true

UAX: DSM-LAX

FAT-SNA. Air Cal opened the market. Golden West, Dash Air, Mid Pacific, and finally OO as United Express and now nothing. If AS can fill 175’s 3X to SAN, at least 1X to SNA can work, just need a slot.

JFK/LGA-DAB. Hasn't been discontinued yet, but hopefully someone else can pick up the slack.

99.999% sure not going to happen, but

BA: DTW-LHR
LH - FRA-HYD
KL - AMS-HYD

I would like to see the return of SCK-LAX and SCK-SFO in my USA hometown airport Stockton, CA on UA Express or American Eagle. Both routes were flown by UA mainline, (props and then jets), and by PSA. Hughes Airwest, Golden Gate and Air Pacific flew to SFO. Pacific Express, US Airways and then USX flew the LAX route.
A successful route was SCK-PHX on America West Express and I would like to see it return on AA or Eagle.
For a short time the old Frontier flew to Denver, a nice option for valley residents. This would be a dream come true.

jetblueguy22 wrote:

B0pp0 wrote:

DL ATL-SWF. When I lived near SWF, it was much easier than dealing with going up to ALB, HPN, or BDL for a nonstop. There are a lot of people who prefer the ease of SWF and would fly out there if they had more service that wasn't geared towards vacationers.

BOS-ISP, while short as the crow flies, would be good given all the land-based alternatives are either roundabout, a headache, or both.

x2 on the SWF-ATL. The company I work for is headquartered in Atlanta and avoiding JFK/LGA would be a dream come true

x3 on SWF-ATL. I used to use that flight all the time, and then branch off from ATL to all over the South and West. The current SWF-DTW on Skywest is so unreliable and uncomfortable.

While we’re at it, PHL-TLV on American. I have family there and I visit once or twice a year. I use the carriers from EWR (United and El Al), but the option to fly American SWF-PHL and PHL-TLV would be so much more convenient.

PSAatSAN4Ever wrote:

Until recently, it was BFL-DFW. I spent most of my summers growing up, from 1970 to 1983, driving from Bakersfield to Charleston, Arkansas, (25 miles east of Fort Smith) with my dad, mom, and little sister. My mom's parents lived there, and we spent 4-6 weeks each summer there. It was a seemingly endless journey at 45-50 mph in dad's 1970 VW camper, taking three entire days to get to Arkansas. We also toured the rest of the country, including my aunts in Missouri and Nebraska, family friends in Colorado, Zion National Park in Utah, and the final stop of Las Vegas to visit my dad's mom.

In the summer of 1984, I stayed home and worked (while in college), and that autumn BFL started getting AA to DFW. And the first time we flew BFL-DFW-FSM - and went door to door in less than eight hours. Compared to the drive, this was the equivalent of a Star Trek transporter!

Then it went away...but its return means it is an option for my mom.

As for me personally, the brief period of time in 2007-2008 when ExpressJet flew SAN-BFL non-stop was amazing - 42 minutes wheels up to wheels down versus a 4+ hour drive through Los Angeles...I would LOVE to have that option again! Heartbreaking that Fresno can sustain 2 (and maybe 3!), but Bakersfield can't sustain one...

This is your lucky day. BFL-DFW returns in March.

I wonder if AS will try something like SEA-BFL or SAN-BFL.

BoeingGuy wrote:

PSAatSAN4Ever wrote:

Until recently, it was BFL-DFW. I spent most of my summers growing up, from 1970 to 1983, driving from Bakersfield to Charleston, Arkansas, (25 miles east of Fort Smith) with my dad, mom, and little sister. My mom's parents lived there, and we spent 4-6 weeks each summer there. It was a seemingly endless journey at 45-50 mph in dad's 1970 VW camper, taking three entire days to get to Arkansas. We also toured the rest of the country, including my aunts in Missouri and Nebraska, family friends in Colorado, Zion National Park in Utah, and the final stop of Las Vegas to visit my dad's mom.

In the summer of 1984, I stayed home and worked (while in college), and that autumn BFL started getting AA to DFW. And the first time we flew BFL-DFW-FSM - and went door to door in less than eight hours. Compared to the drive, this was the equivalent of a Star Trek transporter!

Then it went away...but its return means it is an option for my mom.

As for me personally, the brief period of time in 2007-2008 when ExpressJet flew SAN-BFL non-stop was amazing - 42 minutes wheels up to wheels down versus a 4+ hour drive through Los Angeles...I would LOVE to have that option again! Heartbreaking that Fresno can sustain 2 (and maybe 3!), but Bakersfield can't sustain one...

This is your lucky day. BFL-DFW returns in March.

I wonder if AS will try something like SEA-BFL or SAN-BFL.

The ironic thing is that in the interim, mom has happily switched to United to DEN, flying into XNA instead, and we have family nearby as well that picks her up. She actually likes that the two segments are roughly two hours, so at the halfway point she can get up and move around, as opposed to 3 hours to DFW and one hour to FSM. But now both Arkansas airports are available to her easily the next time she needs it.

On the matter of SEA or PDX, my experience with the Bakersfield, as detailed below in a doozy of a round-about story, explains why I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

As a child in the 1970's with my first map of Bakersfield, I remember realizing how utterly dysfunctional the city's layout was. The 178 freeway from the northeast turned into downtown streets (24th & 23rd Streets), and then went right through a residential area to get to Highway 99. And why Highway 58 was never designated as Interstate 40, I'll never know - the volume on that road is insane, and the city is FINALLY getting major improvements to Highway 58 (3-4 lanes each way as opposed to 2 lanes for an ungodly long time!), and the Centennial corridor is finally going to connect Interstate 5 to Interstate 15/40 at Barstow via freeway the entire length (the last 2-3 miles will be on Stockdale Highway, but the freeway will be extended eventually to I-5).

It baffled me because, on paper at least, Bakersfield was - and really is - incredibly well placed to take advantage of being in the population center of the state, measuring roughly from Sacramento to the Bay Area on the north to San Diego on the south. It is the meeting point of five different routes (I-5, 99, 46, and 58), and with land being vastly cheaper, shipping businesses would have located major facilities along the Bakersfield bypass routes.

Long story short, here's my plan from 1978:



Re-done a few years back on the computer in paint.

Everything in thick gold is freeway. The main north/south routes in the state would be Hwy 1, Interstate 3, co-signed as Hwy 101, Interstate 5, and Interstate 7, with a stub of Interstate 9 paralleling Highway 65 up the eastern edge of the central valley. Interstate 3 would be very restricted for commercial traffic, shifting that onto Interstate 5. Highway 99 becomes Interstate 7, and Interstate 9 begins where Highway 65 terminates at Interstate 7, paralleling Highway 65 to Highway 46, where it would end (temporarily) and shift traffic directly onto Interstate 940. Highway 58 becomes Interstate 40 through Bakersfield, and there are two additional bypass routes connecting Interstate 7 to Interstate 5: the southern Interstate 340, and the northern Interstate 940, which would parallel Highway 46 from Interstate 9/Highway 65 all the way to Interstate 3/Highway 101. All commercial traffic not destined for a location within the metro area would take the bypass around Bakersfield. Within the grid system of major roads, the zones between two major roads would be zoned commercial, such is what is being developed now south of the I-5/99 merge. Bakersfield would control the traffic.

Instead, sadly, traffic has controlled Bakersfield. Instead of facing their problems head on, they chose to hide in the sand. And the cost now is vastly larger than it would have been 60+ years ago, but I was proven right. Unfortunately, this short-sidedness has left the city relatively poor compared to the growth of other cities, including Fresno, its near twin to the north. They have a AAA baseball team AND a well-supplied airport! It is not a wealthy city, and although there are many successful businesses (and both Basque and Mexican food is out of this world!), it is not a city that builds a big business demand. Oil has been its only "big" business, but it has always been boom and bust. And nowhere is that truer than at BFL, which is holding on to six daily commercial flights (1x SFO, 2x DEN, 3x PHX, and soon to be 1x DFW), all on regional jets. One must factor in LAX and the multitude of destinations available there, yes, but growing up it just seemed sad to see every route tried and cut.

But back to the world-I-created Airport-wise, I expanded BFL International Airport by about two dozen times, placing 2 additional parallel runways to 32R (with options for nearly unlimited parallel runways heading north!), each more than a mile apart, which would put their noise levels FAR away from the city. There would be roads between the runways, and airplanes, if needing to, would have full access (if not a long taxi route) to every runway if needed. But 32L/14R and 32R/14L would continue to operate primarily for commercial traffic (next to the terminal), and 33L/15R, 33C/15C, and 33R/15L and any additional runways to come later, each located a mile apart from each other, would have room to build large processing facilities. I pictured the Post Office or UPS building a major facility there, not hemmed in at LAX with high land costs.



Whew!! Look what you got out of me. Thank you for letting me share. Oh, the things that could have been had someone in charge have seen the vision - but no one did. And it breaks my heart. But it feels good also to be vindicated.

Personally:
BKK- N.America

MSP-FCO on Delta. This failed a few years back in the summer but I believe that it could work again.

MDW-LIT, MDW-TUL, DEN-BUF, DEN-PVD, HOU-LIT, PHX-BOS, and STL-SLC on WN