"Salt Lake hub vies with CVG"

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Salt Lake hub vies with CVG
Utah service growing; Cincinnati stays stable
BY ALEXANDER COOLIDGE
The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer


Is Salt Lake City eclipsing Cincinnati as Delta Air Lines' No. 2 hub?

Beefed up service in Utah and other signals by Delta hint it's possible -
while officials at Salt Lake City International Airport say it's already
happened.

Delta officials say Cincinnati is still its second-largest operation but
acknowledge that cuts here during the airline's bankruptcy as well as
changes in the Utah capital have made the comparisons closer.

The airline bills Salt Lake as its fastest-growing hub and has boosted the
number of direct-service destinations available from the western city to 109
- just a few shy of 123 destinations available from Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky International Airport. But it has more Delta planes taking off to
more cities than its Utah counterpart.

The company says the only way Salt Lake is No. 2 now is using an industry
measure of seating capacity called available seat-miles - the number of
seats on planes times the miles flown. Due to Salt Lake's geographic
isolation, those numbers are higher than out of CVG.

"It depends on how you quantify it," said chief operating officer James
Whitehurst, who noted the airline cut back at both hubs during its
bankruptcy - albeit in different ways.

"In Salt Lake, we've grown the number of destinations but fed that by
cutting frequencies," he said, explaining routes that previously had four or
five trips a day went down to three or four daily.

Experts say which airport is the bigger cog in Delta's machine is immaterial
to this region as long as the carrier maintains its local operations - and
no one expects Delta to leave.

Business leaders and economists credit the hub with pumping billions into
the local economy. Delta employs roughly 8,000 in the area, and direct
flights is credited with luring big-name employers from Toyota's North
American headquarters to Fidelity's local operations.

Jim Brock, an economist at Miami University, said the local hub was a
"double-edged sword" it provides jobs and attracts some employers, but as
the most expensive airport in the country it also charged higher for airline
tickets. Delta's local profits, however, probably ensure its continued level
of service at CVG.

"What matters is Delta's got a lock on Cincinnati, and I don't see them
leaving," he said.

Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo., said Delta's hubs in
Cincinnati and Salt Lake are totally different animals. He predicted Delta's
presence here would remain stable, while Salt Lake operations may grow a
little more. He said Delta's Salt Lake prospects, however, were restricted
by competition from Southwest Airlines as well as a lower - though growing -
population density.

"Cincinnati is what it's going to be - a strong part of Delta's system," he
said. "Salt Lake is in the right place at the right time. ... Without it,
Delta has no presence in the West."

Delta executives refuse to say when or if Salt Lake's operations will
surpass Cincinnati.

Glen Hauenstein, Delta's executive vice president in charge of network
planning and revenue management, said Cincinnati remains critical to the
airline's operations.

"We can't imagine Delta without Cincinnati - it's in our DNA," he said,
adding the airline will likely upgrade aircraft departing CVG to larger jets
and a few more destinations.

Still, Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is a largely developed
market for Delta, while a growing population in Rocky Mountain states buoys
Salt Lake.

In December 2005, Delta slashed CVG's service by 26 percent to remove a
disproportionate amount of connecting traffic.

Delta officials said without enough local demand for a handful of
destinations that were cut, it was too expensive to operate connecting
service here between cities such as Moline, Ill. and Pensacola, Fla. Delta
also cut Salt Lake City, but not as deeply.

Nonetheless, Hauenstein said passengers starting or ending their trips here
still accounts for only 35 to 40 percent of Delta's traffic at CVG - with
the rest being connecting passengers.

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