Delta Air Lines has pulled flights to London Gatwick Airport (LGW) from its winter 2023-24 schedule just four months after the carrier returned to the UK’s second-largest gateway after an 11-year absence.
The airline launched daily service from New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) in April using Boeing 767-300 aircraft, operating alongside its existing double-daily route to London Heathrow aboard Airbus A330neos and 767-400s.
Flights to LGW were originally planned to continue during the winter months, with daily service until Jan. 8, 2024, when frequencies were scheduled to reduce to 5X-weekly. Daily operation was then scheduled to restart from March 7, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data.
However, reservations for nonstop flights from JFK are currently unavailable on Delta’s booking system beyond Oct. 27 and remain closed until March 30, 2024.
The New York-London market is currently served by seven carriers on a city-pair basis, which collectively provide some 119,630 two-way weekly seats. This compares with 112,002 at this time in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Delta has the fifth-largest capacity share of the seven operators at present, accounting for 8.5% of the total number of seats between New York and London, while SkyTeam Alliance partner Virgin Atlantic ranks second, with 21.6% of the market.
British Airways (BA) is the largest with a 34.2% seat capacity share, with American Airlines third on 13.9%, United Airlines fourth on 13%, JetBlue Airways sixth on 4.9% and Norse Atlantic Airways seventh on 4%.
Delta returned to LGW on April 11, coinciding with its 45th anniversary of serving the UK. Prior to launching the new route from JFK, the carrier last served LGW in April 2012, when flights from Atlanta switched to London Heathrow.
A statement from Delta says: "During the winter season, starting Oct. 31, 2023, Delta is temporarily suspending its nonstop service between New York-JFK and London Gatwick. Delta will continue to serve London Heathrow and any customers affected will be re-accommodated on Delta operated flights or services operated by our joint venture partners. Delta is set to resume the route in summer 2024."
The JFK-LGW market will continue to be served during the winter season by BA, JetBlue and Norse.
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