Adjustments to route schedules continue to adversely impact small cities in the United States. Delta is making the most recent cuts, deleting five cities from its route network.
The airline is canceling flights to Providence, Rhode Island, and three New York cities: Albany, Rochester, and Syracuse, all from its Minneapolis-St. Paul hub.
Providence will be the first route to be canceled on September 5, followed by Albany and Rochester on September 6 and Syracuse on September 12.
Although the flight cuts will significantly impact service to Upstate New York and New England, Delta Air Lines is not pulling out of the four Northeast cities entirely.
All of these destinations will be served by the carrier’s New York hubs, as well as flights from Atlanta and Detroit.
“We continue to monitor and adjust our flight schedules and route network based on customer demand,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Points Guy.
But not all is about route cuts, the carrier is also introducing new routes to Kansas City, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from its New York-JFK base.
Beginning June 6, the airline will begin daily flights on these routes, operated by its regional subsidiary Endeavor Air.
In a separate report, Delta has just announced that it is now blocking some rows of seats that can only be picked by families or groups of more than three passengers.
Delta claims to use an algorithm to figure out how many rows of seats to reserve on a given aircraft. On flights with a lot of families, for example, more rows of seats are reserved than on flights with a lot of business travelers.
If the situation changes – even on a particular flight- Delta can adjust the number of seats available for groups.
“Being a customer-centric brand means we’re constantly working to offer optimal experiences across travel.” said the airline.
“Taking a dynamic approach with our seat map displays is one way of doing that by providing preferred seating choices in all cabins–at the time of booking or at the gate when working with an agent–for customers traveling alone or with a group.”