Delta Airlines Question? Help Me Please?

Question

Why does Delta Airlines does not fly its Boeing 767-300 to San Diego to Atlanta and back? I flew on the 767-300 last year. Know I realized that the 767-300 for Delta Airlines does not fly into San Diego. Anybody knows why? Help me please.

Answer 1

Simply put, Delta Air Lines has cut back on domestic widebody flights over the past few years.

Delta has put major emphasis on international expansion in recent years to capture the higher yields/profits that international flights typically are offering the U.S. major airlines nowadays.  In order to have the aircraft to operate all of the new international flights, Delta reconfigured the eight 767-332(ER)s that were in domestic configuration over to the international configuration with a Business Elite cabin instead of a First Class cabin.  These aircraft are registered N171DZ-N178DZ.  In addition to this, Delta has removed from service seven of the older standard 767-332s that were operating domestically.  Four of them (N116DL-N119DL) have gone to Hawaiian, while the other three (N120DL, N122DL, and N123DN) were returned to their lessors.  This currently leaves 21 767-332s flying domestically, four of which are almost exclusively assigned to Hawaii and Atlanta-Los Angeles flights.  On top of the reduction in 767-300 domestic flying, Delta has also reconfigured 11 of their 21 767-432ERs for international service.  They include N835MH through N845MH.  The rest of the 767-400 fleet will be reconfigured next year.

All of these things combined with the retirement of the 767-200 fleet in early-2006 has resulted in Delta's domestic widebody flying being reduced dramatically over the past several years.  Thus, many of the markets that used to see Delta widebody service have now been relegated to 757-200, 737-800, and even MD-88/90 service.  San Diego is one of those markets.  New York LaGuardia, Boston, Hartford, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Ft. Myers, Miami, Portland, and Bermuda are a number of other markets that have met the same fate.  And despite being a hub, which will inevitably be dismantled when and if the Northwest merger goes through, Cincinnati no longer sees domestic Delta widebody flights anymore.  The last one to get the axe was the nonstop Honolulu service that Delta operated with the 767-400.  They do, of course, still operate 767-300s internationally from Cincinnati to Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Rome.

HOWEVER, Delta typically increases capacity to San Diego during the winter months as demand rises, and they currently have a single 767-300 scheduled into San Diego this winter.  It arrives at 6:20 p.m. from Atlanta, overnights, and returns to Atlanta at 6:15 a.m.

It definitely is a bummer that you do not see as many domestic Delta 767-300 flights nowadays, especially now that they have installed audio/video on-demand in both First Class and Coach.  It is now my favorite Delta aircraft to fly on because of this feature.