Delta Announces Cutbacks in the Pacific
Changes Include Smaller Aircraft and Discontinued Routes
Delta announced significant cutbacks in its Pacific division on Thursday in a memo to its employees. The airline has been reducing the size of its Tokyo hub at Narita International Airport for some time and is eliminating several routes while downgauging the aircraft used on other routes. It will also continue to expand its Seattle hub and increase non-stop routes from there.
Delta is cancelling its Tokyo (Narita)-Hong Kong and Nagoya-Manila routes on October 26 of this year. It will continue to offer non-stop service to Hong Kong from Seattle and will service Manila from Tokyo.
Starting September 30, the airline will begin to remove 747s from three routes. Atlanta-Tokyo will be operated using a Boeing 777-200, as will Los Angeles-Tokyo beginning the following day. On October 26, Detroit-Nagoya will downgauge to an Airbus A330-200.
Delta previously announced that New York-Tokyo and New York-Tel Aviv will also go from a 747 to a 777. Earlier on Thursday, the airline said it was planning on retiring 25% of its 747 fleet.
Delta is redeploying 777s and 767-300s from the Atlantic to the Pacific division due to reductions in capacity in the Atlantic. The airline also expects to receive ten A330-300s starting in 2015.
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