Delta ending three decades of hub operations at DFW Airport

<p>Two dozen gates at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport are up for grabs with financially troubled Delta Air Lines shutting down one of its four airport hubs.</p><p>The Atlanta-based carrier on Monday was to end three decades of hub operations at the North Texas airport, leaving a dramatically reduced number of flights at DFW. The move also meant elimination of about 3,600 jobs at Delta and its regional affiliate.</p><p>Delta was reducing its DFW Airport schedule from 250 daily flights to 66 cities to 21 daily departures going to its three remaining hubs in Atlanta, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City.</p><p>The airline, which formerly served almost 30 percent of all DFW traffic, flew just 16 percent as of last summer. The reduced schedule means Delta will have about three percent of DFW's traffic.</p><p>Passengers traveling through DFW will have fewer nonstop choices, but air fares should remain competitive.</p><p>Delta has been a DFW tenant since the airport opened in 1974, but traffic has dwindled since the airline announced last year that it was abandoning 24 gates. Security employees in DFW's Terminal E have outnumbered passengers in many areas.</p><p>"I always connect through their hubs, so I'll still fly Delta," said Scott Chamberlin, a Dallas-based engineer who has been a Delta customer for nearly 20 years, as he breezed through security. "Their service has always been head-and-shoulders above anyone else."</p><p>The airline will keep only four gates at DFW. Delta had leased the gates through the end of 2009. But, instead of forcing Delta to make good on the future rent payments, the airport said earlier this month that it would reimburse Delta for costs of physical improvements it made at Terminal E.</p><p>Airport officials will pay Delta $7 million for the 24 gates that the troubled carrier is abandoning and will offer other airlines a year's rent free and up to $22 million in aid to take Delta's place.</p><p>The airline's withdrawal means loss of nonstop service from DFW Airport to 17 cities, including Lexington, Ky., and Savannah, Ga.</p><p>Reductions by Delta will cost the airport an estimated $35 million in the current fiscal year from lost rent, landing fees and concession dollars. Later, the impact was expected to rise to $50 million in annual revenue.</p><p>However, Kevin Cox, DFW chief operating officer, said that loss will be offset by new revenue from schedule expansion by American Airlines.</p><p>Fort Worth-based American is adding as many as 115 daily flights this year over 2004 to soak up the traffic ceded by Delta.</p>