Delta Hints at Cincinnati's Demise as a Hub

(MoneyWatch)  Delta has been adamant throughout its merger with Northwest that it wouldn't be closing any hubs. I haven't believed a word of it. Of course they're going to say it because they want to get broad support from the government, but now that it's been approved, we'll see what plans they really have. As I've said before, I still think Cincinnati will disappear as a hub. Delta appears to have finally softened its stance on this issue.

An article in a Cincinnati newspaper has Delta's top planner saying that Cincinnati now has a timeline for success. ". . . Delta is now reaffirming its commitment to the Cincinnati hub through the summer season of next year and then we'll take another barometer reading on how the economy is doing."

Oh, and by the way, that comes with a 12% decrease in capacity in January. So, the airline will pursue the strategy of death by a thousand cuts instead of just getting it over with. Cincinnati is just too close to Memphis and Detroit for it to have enough of a reason to exist as a connecting point.

Don't get me wrong. Delta won't walk away completely. It will probably look like what US Airways has done in Pittsburgh. There will be flights only to those major cities that can support nonstop service without much connecting feed as well as flights to the hubs. I would actually expect Memphis to see a similar fate. But it's days as Delta's only Midwestern hub are over, and so it's inevitable that it will continue to lose flights.