The largest airline in New York will hibernate a little bit during the winter.
Delta Air Lines is cutting nearly 20% of its flying from its two hubs in New York City during one of the slowest winter months. Delta filed plans to pull 16% and 19% of its flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in January and February, respectively, Cirium schedules show.
Other winter months will also see some significant pullbacks, including a roughly 10% reduction in the number of scheduled flights in November, December, March and April.
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Delta says that it is removing about 50 peak-day trips per month in November, the first half of December and from March 2026 through October 2026. That number jumps to 75 peak-day trips in the deep-winter months, which Delta defines as January and February.
The good news is that the airline isn’t (currently) cutting any routes from New York. Every route scheduled for the winter season will continue to operate.
Instead, the airline is significantly reducing the number of frequencies it flies on a given route during the winter. For instance, routes from LGA to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Des Moines, Iowa, will go from three-times-daily service to once daily.
Asked about the cuts, a Delta spokesperson explained that “following the FAA’s extension of the NYC slot utilization waiver through Summer 2026, Delta is making select adjustments to our winter schedule at LaGuardia (LGA) and John F. Kennedy (JFK) airports. … We apologize for any inconvenience that these schedule changes may cause. Delta remains committed to minimizing travel disruptions while ensuring a smooth transition for all impacted travelers.”
When Delta originally built its winter schedule, it was seemingly operating under the assumption that it would need to operate every slot-pair that it owns or has access to.
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That’s because slots, or takeoff and landing permissions, typically include a use-it-or-lose-it provision. If Delta didn’t fly all the slots in its portfolio, some might return to the free market for a competitor to potentially acquire.
As you can expect, losing valuable slots in New York City isn’t on any network planner’s agenda — so much so that there are employees at the biggest airlines whose sole job is to monitor slot usage — and as such, Delta was originally planning to fully utilize its entire slot portfolio this winter.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration extended the utilization waiver through summer 2026, which essentially means that airlines can keep their slots at the capacity-constrained airports in New York City even if they don’t use all of them.
And in an environment where airline CEOs and commercial teams say that demand, especially domestically in off-peak times, isn’t as robust as they would’ve hoped, Delta can slash potentially unprofitable flights without worrying about losing its far more valuable long-term slots.
Unfortunately, the traveler typically loses in this situation. That’s because there are fewer flight frequencies to choose from, and with less competition, airlines enjoy a bit more pricing power in the market.
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