Jaunted

The government does pitch to help keep some of these flights flying thanks to something called the Extended Air Service program, so Delta does have to give a little warning to the US Department of Transportation before leaving town. Through the program the government throws in a couple bucks or two to subsidize some of these smaller markets, and it allows other airlines or carriers to bid for the chance to serve these cities. All these rules mean that a specific timeline for some of these spots is uncertain, but it’s certainly not good news.

Through the Atlanta Journal Constitution we get a list of all the cities getting screwed:

The cities affected are: Thief River Falls, Minn.; Greenville, Miss.; Devils Lake, N.D.; Watertown, S.D.; Muscle Shoals, Ala.; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Hibbing, Minn.; Alpena, Mich.; Tupelo, Miss.; Jamestown, N.D.; Mason City, Iowa; Pierre, S.D.; Iron Mountain, Mich.; Sioux City, Iowa; International Falls, Minn.; Brainerd, Minn.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Escanaba, Mich.; Aberdeen, S.D.; Pellston, Mich.; Bemidji, Minn.; Sault Ste Marie, Mich.; Waterloo, Iowa; and Butte, Mont.

Delta also has a list right here where they also list the load factor of some of their flights. Most of the flights fly into hubs like Detroit, Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. It’s kind of bummer for those in these spots, but we kind of understand why they need to pull service from a place like Thief River Falls, Minnesota—they had a butt-in-seat percentage of like 12%.

[Photo: smaedli]