Delta Air Lines is giving its winter schedule a big boost with the addition of three interesting routes.
The Atlanta-based carrier will commence service between the following airports Dec. 20, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.
- New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) — Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) near Vail, Colorado
- New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) — Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) in Montana
- Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) — Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers, Florida
All the new flights will operate weekly on Saturdays throughout the peak winter season. Seats on these new flights are already available for purchase via Delta’s booking channels. As expected, there is no saver award availability on these new routes, so you’ll be stuck paying Delta’s dynamic SkyMiles redemption rates if you want to use miles.
Delta will deploy a Boeing 757-200 on the JFK to EGE route, while an Airbus A319 will operate the other two flights.
Macroeconomic factors aside, all the routes seem like they should be a hit with travelers. The 1,746-mile route from New York to Vail should be popular with flyers looking for a luxe winter ski trip without a stop along the way. (Delta will go up against American Airlines’ daily service on this route.)
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Meanwhile, the flight from Salt Lake City to Fort Myers should appeal to those based in the Utah capital and other nearby cities looking to escape the cold.
Finally, service from New York to Bozeman should give travelers a new option to get to Big Sky and other nearby ski destinations without needing to travel to JFK or Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). (JetBlue flies there from JFK, and United Airlines flies there from EWR.)
It’ll be interesting to see how these new routes fare. It’d be great if Delta increased the frequency of the new routes to accommodate more passengers, but one of the new routes is capped at once a week, no matter how much demand there is.
That’s the 1,894-mile route from New York to Bozeman. This route can only operate on Saturdays due to LaGuardia’s perimeter rule that restricts flights from the airport to destinations within 1,500 miles. The only exception to the rule is flights to Denver — and service on Saturdays.
That’s why whenever unique flights are operated from LaGuardia, they exclusively operate on Saturdays.
Unfortunately, these weekly experiments always seem to be short-lived. In fact, Delta has tried its hand at a handful of them, including flights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, in recent years.
Delta even flew between LGA and BZN in the summer of 2019, Cirium schedules show, but those flights haven’t returned for a summer season. Now, Delta seemingly wants to give it a try in the winter to see if skiers will prove more lucrative than hikers.
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