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DEN-ATL schedule

denno
Adventurer B

The 2018 summer schedule has 5 daily DEN-ATL flights.  The new Nov 4 schedule has only 3 daily!  What has happened?  This is a huge market!  Is is lack of aircraft?  Is it poor traffic?  Why the drop of 40% of the capacity?  That looks like more than merely "seasonal adjustment," especially when DL and UA are holding firm.

1 REPLY 1

Re: DEN-ATL schedule

rtbarron
Frequent Flyer A

Without knowing the actual passenger numbers in the market, it's anybody's guess why Southwest is cutting flights. However, looking at the number of daily flights and aircraft flown in the market, it appears that there may be too much capacity and Southwest is simply reducing flights to better match demand.

I looked at a few flights in October vs December and it appears that Delta is actually cutting their daily DEN-ATL flights from eight (on Mon. 10/8) to six (on Mon. 12/3). United is holding firm at four daily flights, but one of those flights is on a smaller regional jet and the other three flights are on either 737-800s or A319s, similar in number of seats to Southwest's 737s.

So, even with three flights a day, Southwest is in line with United in terms of capacity. Delta, is actually reducing flights (I can't say whether they are reducing capacity because I didn't see what aircraft they were using).