Delta Shuttle - History

History

Pan Am started the shuttle in 1987. In September 1991, Pan Am sold the shuttle to Delta a few months before the rest of its assets were sold. Delta acquired the shuttle and the several Boeing 727s being used to provide the service. In 2000, Delta began replacing its fleet of Boeing 727s with 737-800s.

For a short period beginning in late 2003, after all Boeing 727s had been eliminated from the Delta fleet and replaced with the 737-800s, Delta shifted service of its shuttle routes on to 737-300s. This was a temporary move as the 737-300s were also being eliminated from the fleet, and Delta Shuttle routes were later served by McDonnell Douglas MD-88s.

The Delta Shuttle was the last of the shuttle operations to guarantee a seat to passengers. If a plane was oversold, a second plane would be rolled out to form an "extra section" to fly the overflow on time. This practice ended in 2005. In recent press reports it has been mentioned the Delta Shuttle will be rolled into the standard Delta mainline operating fleet.

In December 2008, Delta announced that the MD-88s on its New York-Washington route would be phased out in favor of the Embraer 175 jets, operated by Delta Connection partners. Operations by Delta's now divested subsidiary, Trans States Holdings - Compass or continued outsourcing to Republic Airways Holdings as is presently done upon these routes will assure New York to Washington routes remain.

On August 12, 2009, Delta Air Lines and US Airways announced a landing slot and terminal swap. Under the swap plan, which is subject to government approval, US Airways will give Delta 125 operating slot pairs at LaGuardia. As part of the changes, Delta Shuttle operations will move from the Marine Air Terminal to Terminal C (the present US Airways terminal), and a connection will be built between Terminal C and Terminal D (the current mainline Delta terminal). US Airways Shuttle flights will move to the Marine Air Terminal, and mainline US Airways flights will move to Terminal D.

On March 18, 2010, Delta Air Lines announced it would be expanding its Delta Shuttle service to serve Chicago's O'Hare Airport from New York-LaGuardia. Delta will offer 11 daily flights between the two airports from June 10, 2010, the new service will be outsourced and operated by the Republic Airways Holdings carrier Shuttle America and operate with Embraer 175 jets; at the same time Delta will be discontinuing its New York-LaGuardia-Chicago Midway service on June 9, 2010.

On June 1, 2010, Delta Air Lines ended MD-88 service between New York-LaGuardia and Boston, opting to use a combination of smaller, more efficient Airbus A319 jets and Shuttle America Embraer Regional Jets for all Boston flights. The operation between Boston and Reagan, now operated by ASA and Comair with Canadair Regional Jets, goes head to head with US Airways Shuttle aircraft but is not considered part of Delta Shuttle due to the lack of frequency of operations and aircraft size.

On March 25, 2012, Delta has suspended all Boston - Washington Reagan service due to slot swap with US Airways. US Airways got control of some of the old Delta's slot in Washington Reagan and Delta got US Airways old slots in LaGuardia. Also, all Delta Shuttle flight times were adjusted to be aligned with US Airways shuttle times for increased competition. Previously, the two companies had flights departing hourly at opposite intervals but they now all depart at the same time.

On June 10, 2012 Delta discontinued the use of mainline Airbus A319 aircraft for the Boston - LaGuardia Shuttle service. This route is now operated by Shuttle America with E175 aircraft. This was the last remaining Delta Shuttle route that was still operated by mainline aircraft and now all Delta Shuttle flights are operated by Delta Connection carriers.