Source: Aviation Daily

Delta yesterday unveiled plans to create a mini-hub in Los Angeles, which will be used to accommodate a nearly 45% jump in weekly flight departures this winter as the carrier looks to boost its market share to Mexico and Latin America.

The move was expected after the carrier filed the expanded schedule on Friday. Delta has been eyeing a LAX expansion for a quite some time, said Bob Cortelyou, VP-network planning, but its resources have been focused on Atlanta and New York recently. Demand is growing to Mexican leisure and ethnic destinations from the U.S. West Coast, which made this winter the right time to launch the expansion, he said.

In addition to the increasing demand, Delta's terminals at LAX are underused and could accommodate significant domestic and international growth as the building has customs and immigration facilities, Cortelyou told The DAILY. Delta acquired Terminal 5 when it bought Western Airlines in 1986, and it has made recent upgrades, including an underground connector to some Delta gates in Terminal 6, opened July 1.

The carrier added some LAX feed from mid-sized East Coast markets in recent months from Hartford, Columbus and Raleigh/ Durham. Starting in December, Delta will add intra-California regional feed to Los Angeles from San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland and San Jose. Cortelyou said the new California flights are timed to boost feed to the new LAX hub, and Delta is not interested in battling incumbents Southwest and United for California origin-and-destination passengers.

Delta will have two daily LAX flight banks of service to and from Mexico and Central America. The expansion will start Dec. 15 and will last through March 2007, with many of the flights being operated by Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast. The carrier will add nonstop flights to nine Mexican cities, as well as one city each in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

According to published schedules, Delta will have 431 weekly departures by March, representing a 44% jump in total departures. Because most of the flights will be flown with 50- or 70-seat regional jets, total seats per week will grow by about 13%. In terms of total seat share at LAX, Delta will remain a distant fourth behind United, American and Southwest.

Delta executives note, however, that none of the larger carriers at LAX offers much service south of the border. The largest competitor to Delta's Mexican LAX expansion is Alaska Airlines, Cortelyou said. Alaska's March schedule shows 359 weekly LAX departures, including service to 10 Mexican points. Executives note that the LAX boost will not mean Delta will slow Latin growth from its other hubs, with new service planned to start in December from Atlanta, JFK and Salt Lake City, subject to government approval.

Delta hinted that there is more LAX expansion to come beyond yesterday's announcement. Besides growing service to the South, the carrier said there is "lots of potential" to other regions of the world, including Asia/Pacific destinations.