Delta to cancel nonstop flights from Jacksonville to Memphis

[ben says]

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2012/11/27/delta-to-cancel-nonstop-flights-from.html

Delta Air Lines is stopping its nonstop service from Jacksonville International Airport to Memphis, Tenn., in early 2013.
The airline (NYSE:DAL) told the Memphis Commercial Appeal Monday it was cutting flights to and from Memphis International Airport because of declining revenue and passengers.
“The markets that have been impacted by the cuts specifically were underperforming from a passenger demand and revenue performance standpoint,” Anthony Black, a Delta spokesman, told the newspaper.
Read more from the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

[fsquid]

no surprise.  once Delta bought Northwest, the Memphis hub was in danger.   when I was there last week, the airport is basically only half full because of the cutbacks from around 250 flights that NW had to the current 120 that Delta operates.

[ben says]

I never really understood why there was a hub in Memphis in the first place.....or how they can sustain direct flights to AMS and CDG (if those are still available--they were last time i was in memphis airport)

[fsquid]

Memphis is a central location and basically any flight in the US to there is less than 4 hours.  I don't really know how airlines work, but seems like that would work.  Northwest bought Republic which had a hub in Memphis.

Memphis to Amsterdam was just cancelled last month.  I don't think they ever went to Paris directly.

[Ocklawaha]

You are right fsquid, with the short time in the air centrally located hubs away from the major cities work well for many airlines. Dayton, Charlotte, Memphis are examples, as are Chicago Midway, Dallas Love, etc.. Scheduled flights between city pairs that might not make any sense at all, Jacksonville - Hamburg for example can become completely doable when it's Jacksonville - Memphis - Hamburg. Scheduling arranges for the flights to cluster around the same time several times daily. The same thing Greyhound does in downtown Jacksonville a couple of times daily. By doing this that single Memphis - Hamburg flight can easily be Omaha - Hamburg, Jacksonville - Hamburg, Little Rock - Hamburg, Louisville - Hamburg, OKC - Hamburg etc... 

[spuwho]

I have flown that Memphis/Jax non-stop several times on Northwest.

It was down to a commuter CRJ plane in size run by a contract flyer (Pinnacle).

Pinnacle was in the news a few years ago when 2 of their pilots were goofing off and took a CRJ too high when empty (dead heading) and stalled the engines. One of the engines had a melted core which is unheard of in passenger planes.

Memphis is a valued hub for some airlines because they are able to take advantage of the fact that FedEx and UPS have major transcon hubs there and pick up overflow express mail cargo.

FedEx already has 2 daily flights out of JIA to Memphis.

I liked using the Memphis route to/from Chicago on NWA because Memphis doesn't have the incessant delays, storms and power outages that Hartsfield has with Delta and AirTran. Also the NWA terminal in ORD was not as congested and the Memphis flight was rarely delayed.

[fsquid]

food isn't made at MEM either!

I believe the UPS hub is in Louisville.  Can't say I've ever seen a UPS plane on the ground at MEM. 

[spuwho]

food isn't made at MEM either!

I believe the UPS hub is in Louisville.  Can't say I've ever seen a UPS plane on the ground at MEM.

Sorry, I meant USPS.

[JaxByDefault]

There goes the other half of my cash-cow Delta bump run. We made a mint on voluntary bumps flying through Memphis. (My love of the Bombardier CRJ-200--with its gate check luggage, decent legroom, and restrictive weight limits often necessitating a couple of passengers to get off the flight-- knows no bounds.) Also, the Sky Club lounge there was (until recent renovations) a relatively quiet and pleasant affair compared to the rest of the Klieg-lit cell phone chatter dens in the Delta system.

I just had to fly to DAL via ATL for the first time as MEM-DAL was axed in September. Hartsfield ... blech.

[spuwho]

There goes the other half of my cash-cow Delta bump run. We made a mint on voluntary bumps flying through Memphis. (My love of the Bombardier CRJ-200--with its gate check luggage, decent legroom, and restrictive weight limits often necessitating a couple of passengers to get off the flight-- knows no bounds.) Also, the Sky Club lounge there was (until recent renovations) a relatively quiet and pleasant affair compared to the rest of the Klieg-lit cell phone chatter dens in the Delta system.

I just had to fly to DAL via ATL for the first time as MEM-DAL was axed in September. Hartsfield ... blech.

AA has JAX/DFW non stops. It's an MD-80. Adequate for flights in/out of Dallas. Otherwise it's ride the bus with Southwest. AirTran is a noise, wait fest, I take the biz upgrade if I have to sit more than 2 hours with them. Too many criers and strollers to navigate.

[fsquid]

I go to LAX all the time and would go through Memphis just to get some good BBQ.  Plus, I could always get an exit row on the MEM-LAX run.

[ben says]

On a similar but unrelated note, I'm just going to throw it out there: I love JIA. It's modern, clean, and accessible. Never a long wait a security and a friendly staff. We're literally a 45 minute connection to almost any direct flight in the world out of ATL. Outside of having a JFK to ATL or LAX style airport (which I don't like, convenience be damned), we have the next best thing.

[JayBird]

^ +1

[carpnter]

When I had to travel to St. Louis back in 2010, I would frequently fly home through Memphis because I could get something that worked around the time I wanted or needed to travel.  I didn't care for the CRJ aircraft that the Delta partner flew out of that airport though.

[fsquid]

JIA is great, I agree with that.  Especially the line when I travel with my little ones.