Delta Plans Expansion at Dallas Love Field

New flights to five destinations would expand competition at airport, add more options for North Texas travelers

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Nov 14, 2013, 09:00 ET

ATLANTA, Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) plans to add 18 daily nonstop flights to five destinations from Dallas Love Field in October 2014, boosting competition in the market and adding an array of new travel options for North Texas travelers.

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Delta's planned expansion will enhance competition at the airport with new nonstop service to New York-LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Delta also will add two daily flights to its existing Atlanta service.

Delta will require access to gates at Love Field in order to operate its expanded schedule. Delta has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to allow it to bid on Love Field gates as part of the divestiture of airport assets under a proposed settlement agreement with American Airlines and US Airways.

Currently at Love Field, 16 of the 20 gates and more than 95 percent of available seats are controlled by one airline, Southwest Airlines, which transports more passengers in the U.S. than any other carrier. Love Field has one of the highest concentrations of operations controlled by a single airline among the nation's large airports.

"Our new service at Dallas Love Field means more competition and options for North Texas travelers, and flights to our international hubs will provide convenient connections to international destinations in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa," said Bob Cortelyou, Delta's senior vice president – Network Planning. "Dallas/Fort Worth is a top business market and critical to our strategy of connecting the world's leading cities for business and commerce."

The expanded Love Field service builds on Delta's recent growth at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, where it currently operates 45 peak-day flights to eight destinations. Last year, Delta added new nonstop service between DFW and New York-LaGuardia. It also operates nonstop flights from DFW to Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Memphis and New York-JFK.

When the expansion is complete, Delta would operate a total of 68 daily flights in the Dallas/Fort Worth region, including flights at both DFW and Love Field.

Delta's expansion will be implemented following changes to the Wright Amendment, which previously restricted Love Field service to Texas, adjacent states and Missouri, Alabama, Kansas and Mississippi. Those restrictions are scheduled to end in October 2014.

Delta employs nearly 1,000 people in the Dallas/Fort Worth region in areas including reservations, customer care, airport operations and customer service.

Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. Delta was named by Fortune magazine as the most admired airline worldwide in its 2013 World's Most Admired Companies airline industry list, topping the list for the second time in three years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 314 destinations in 58 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs nearly 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. Delta is investing more than $3 billion in airport facilities and global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on delta.com, Twitter @Delta, Google.com/+Delta and Facebook.com/delta.