Delta Shuttle

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Delta Shuttle is the brand name for Delta Air Lines air-shuttle service in Northeastern United States. The hourly service is operated from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Logan International Airport in Boston, Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Video Delta Shuttle

Histori

In 1980, aviation industry entrepreneur, Frank Lorenzo, through its parent company, Texas Air Corporation, formed a startup, non-union airline New York Air. The operation began on December 19, 1980 with an hourly shuttle service between New York LaGuardia airport, Washington National, and Boston Logan in direct competition with the long established and successful Air East Air Pass. Launched by McDonnell Douglas DC-9 series 30, the New York Air then added a larger DC-9 Super 80 to its fleet. More than five years later, in February 1986, Texas Air Corporation acquired the debt-laden Eastern Air Lines and its shuttle operations. As a condition of sale, the government requires Texas Air to relinquish the New York Air takeoff and landing rights at LaGuardia and Washington National. Pan American World Airways purchased it, along with a gateway at the historic LaGuardia Sea Air Terminal, for $ 76 million. The updated Pan Am Shuttle was launched on October 1, 1986 with a special crew, a Boeing 727 fleet, and a newly renovated Sea Air Terminal. Although Pan Am suffered a sharp financial downturn in subsequent years, culminating in a January 1991 corporate bankruptcy filing, the space shuttle operation was profitable. Delta Air Lines bought Pan Am Shuttle (including some Boeing 727s) for $ 113 million, thus securing Delta's position as the third largest US carrier. Delta re-launched its service under the Delta Shuttle brand on September 1, 1991.

Delta Shuttle began introducing a new Boeing 737-800 aircraft in August 2000 to replace its Boeing 727 fleet. Delivered for six months, sixteen new aircraft are 90 percent quieter and 35 to 40 percent more fuel-efficient than the Boeing 727 and deliver passenger laptop power ports and industry-leading 36-inch pitch seats and six inches of lying in an all-economy cabin. The last Delta Shuttle 727 was retired on January 8, 2001.

In the midst of fleet renewal, Delta Shuttle expanded the uninterrupted Boston-Washington service for nine daily roundtrip flights, departing every other hour, on November 1, 2000. The new service was short-lived, however, due to weak demand pushing Delta to stop Products shuttle on route on September 1, 2001 to support four daily round-trip flights operated by Delta Connection operator Atlantic Coast Airlines.

For a brief period beginning in late 2003, Delta transferred its Shuttle service to Boeing 737-300. This move is temporary, and in November 2005 Delta has stopped the aging of the Boeing 737-300 for a special Shuttle fleet of nine larger and younger McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft.

Delta Shuttle is the last of the space shuttle operations to ensure seating for passengers on foot. If an aircraft oversold, the second aircraft will be launched within fifteen minutes to form an "additional part" to fly an overflowing passenger. This practice ended in 2005.

In September 2008, Delta announced it would dissolve a special fleet of MD-88 Shuttle to a much larger mainline MD-88 fleet. While the Special Shuttle fleet has featured a single-seat economy class cabin with an improved field, the reconfigured aircraft offers first-class and economy cabins, with main seats in each of the mainline seat seats. On December 1, 2008, all Delta Shuttle flights offer first class seating, better aligning Delta products with the equivalent of US Airways Shuttle. Later that month, on the grounds of reducing demand, Delta announced that the MD-88 serving the New York-Washington route would be replaced by a smaller, more efficient, and two-class Embraer 175 jet operated by Delta Connection partners beginning March 2009.

On August 12, 2009, Delta Air Lines and US Airways announced their intention to exchange facilities and take off and land a slot in LaGuardia's capacity-controlled and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, pending government approval. Under the original plan, Delta will get 125 pairs of slots and Terminal C at LaGuardia from US Airways. In return, Delta will release Marine Air Terminal in LaGuardia and 42 pairs of slots in Washington/Reagan to US Airways. Delta Shuttle will be moved to the newly connected C and D terminals, in addition to the widespread operation of Delta's mainstream. Citing concerns about reduced competition, the US Department of Transportation challenged some elements of the plan, and the frustrated airline appealed the agency's decision over the next 21 months. Meanwhile, United Airlines-Continental Airlines and Southwest Airlines-AirTran Airlines merged sharp competition in the New York and Washington areas. Delta and US Airways eventually rejected their appeal and submitted a revised slot swap agreement to DOT in May 2011, when Delta had canceled its plans to relocate Delta Shuttle from Marine Air Terminal. Acknowledging the realities of the new market and the willingness of airlines to release small slot slots to other operators, the DOT approved a slot exchange on October 10, 2011, and the deal was closed two months later on December 13th.

For the time being, Delta has expanded its Delta Shuttle network to serve Chicago O'Hare Airport from New York/LaGuardia. Delta introduced eleven round-trip flights each day (later upgraded to fourteen) between the two airports on June 10, 2010. The service is operated with a second-class Embraer 175 jet by Shuttle America. Considering the Shuttle expansion at O'Hare, Delta stopped its main line service between New York/LaGuardia and Chicago/Midway on June 9, 2010. Also in June, Delta ended the MD-88 service between New York/LaGuardia and Boston, choosing to use a combination from smaller and more efficient Airbus A319 jets (Sunday flights and weekdays) and Embraer regional jets (Saturday flights).

On March 25, 2012, the old Delta Shuttle schedule was adjusted as the parent carrier finally took control of the slot couples acquired from US Airways in LaGuardia. The Delta Shuttle flight between New York, Boston, and Washington, DC, which had previously departed for half an hour, was rescheduled to leave for an hour in direct competition with the US Airways Shuttle. After unleashing the slot slot to US Airways in Washington/Reagan, Delta also trimmed all nonstop flights between Boston and Washington, even though at that time they did not operate under the Delta Shuttle brand for more than ten years.

With a decrease in passengers, Delta stopped the use of the Airbus A319 mainline on the Boston route on June 10, 2012 which supports Embraer 170 and 175 operated by Shuttle America. Boston has been the last Delta Shuttle route still operated by main aircraft; after that, all Delta Shuttle flights are operated by Delta Connection, Shuttle America and Compass Airlines operators. After moving to LaGuardia C Terminal on November 2, 2014, the Boston shuttle now sees the main line service once again, with Delta Boeing 717 operating with Shuttle America Embraer 175.

For the time being, Delta expanded its Delta Shuttle network to the West Coast. The service was launched on September 3, 2013 with Delta adding additional services to create fourteen daily round-trip flights on routes between Los Angeles and San Francisco and add additional features similar to the shuttle system on the East Coast. The West Coast shuttle was expanded in mid-2016 with Delta adding a recently established Seattle/Tacoma center for the network, with services to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Additional flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco were also added at the same time. The West Coast space shuttle flight is served by a mixture of two Embraer 175 regional jet classes operated by Delta Connection partners, and the Delta mainline Boeing 717 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Delta stopped its Delta Shuttle service on the west coast on January 4, 2018. The flight was renamed to regular domestic service. At the time of change, Delta maintains frequent schedules between the West Coast cities, but eliminates additional services and facilities.

Maps Delta Shuttle

Destination

Operated by Delta Air Lines and Republic Airline

New York/LaGuardia to and from:

• Boston
• Chicago-O'Hare
• Washington-Reagan

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Fleet

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Services and facilities

Delta Shuttle is marketed primarily to business travelers traveling among the Northeast business centers in New York, Boston, Washington, DC, and Chicago. As a premium product, Delta Shuttle provides all the following passenger services and facilities not normally offered on major Delta flights:

• Free onboard premium snack service
• Free onboard wine, beer, and liquor
• Reduces minimum check-in and boarding time
• Access to accelerated TSA security paths
• Special gates near security for fast pavement transit to gate
• Free newspapers and magazines, coffee and juice in the gateway area

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Competition

The East Coast operations at Delta Shuttle are direct competitors of American Airlines Shuttle, although Delta does not offer nonstop services between Boston and Washington, DC. While additional operators compete on the same route as the Delta Shuttle, nothing matches an improved shuttle special service and facilities provided by Delta and America.

In the Northeast Corridor, former space shuttle passengers have increasingly abandoned air travel for Amtrak's high-speed Acela Express rail service, especially after post 9/11 security shootings and flight service reductions. In response, both Delta and America have been forced to fly smaller regional planes on their shuttle routes, although hourly frequencies remain.

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References

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External links

• Delta Shuttle

Source of the article : Wikipedia