Airlines Cut Richmond, Va., Flights
By Chip Jones, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Dec. 30–Northwest Airlines is trimming three flights a day from Richmond as part of its strategy to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
On Tuesday, Northwest will cut the airport’s only direct flights to Minneapolis, and eliminate one of two nonstop flights to Memphis, Tenn., from Richmond International Airport.
“Since we have filed for Chapter 11, Northwest has become a smaller airline to compete successfully,” airline spokeswoman Tracy Carlson wrote in an e-mailed response to questions about the route changes. She cited record fuel prices as the primary reason for the cutbacks.
“Routes that might have been commercially viable with oil at $40 per barrel are not profitable at $60 per barrel or higher,” she wrote.
Northwest plans to restore one nonstop flight to Minneapolis on Feb. 16. Until then, travelers will have to fly through Detroit, or take other carriers serving Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport through connecting service.
After Jan. 3, Northwest’s local service will consist of three direct flights to Detroit, and one to Memphis — an overall cut from seven to four flights a day.
Of seven airlines here, Northwest had the smallest market share of total passengers, 5.59 percent, in November.
The Eagan, Minn.-based carrier has been scrambling to lower operating costs and find new markets, including a recent attempt to pair with Delta Air Lines on international flights.
That collaboration was rebuffed last week by the U.S. Transportation Department, which rejected a request from both carriers for an antitrust exemption. Northwest said it plans to appeal.
In another Richmond-related scheduling shift, an AirTran Airways official said the low-fare carrier has scaled back plans for the Florida market.
AirTran will start Saturday-only service from Richmond to Fort Myers, Fla., on Feb. 18. When the airline announced plans here last spring, airport officials said they hoped to get daily flights to the popular vacation spot.
Reached last week, Kevin Healy, AirTran’s vice president of planning and sales, said those plans were always “a little bit up in the air.”
A monthlong machinists strike at Boeing Corp’s Seattle-area plants created a delay in deliveries of new jets, including some ordered by AirTran.
“We ended up getting two fewer planes than planned in ’05, and that has a domino effect all the way through ’06,” Healy said.
AirTran is adjusting its schedule in other cities as well, he said.
The Fort Myers-Richmond connection is considered a seasonal market for southbound travelers in the winter. So, Healy said, it probably would have switched to Saturday-only flights by the end of April.
AirTran is concentrating on filling five daily flights to Atlanta and one daily flight to Orlando, Fla., he said.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
—–
To see more of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesdispatch.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
NWACQ, DALRQ, AAI, BA, 7661,