Delta Air Lines Significantly Scales Back German Network

We can’t say we’re terribly surprised, but Delta Air Lines is significantly scaling back its German network. Late last year, the airline cut service to one German airport, and now the airline is discontinuing service to another…

Delta Axes Service to Two German Cities

As highlighted by @IshrionA, Delta appears to be discontinuing its route between Atlanta (ATL) and Stuttgart (STR) as of October 27, 2024. For context, the airline currently operates this route year-round using Boeing 767-300ERs. However, reservations have been closed starting from the winter season, extending through the end of the schedule.

Ishiron Aviation on X (Source)

Earlier this spring, Delta announced plans to make the Stuttgart service seasonal for the upcoming winter, reflecting the typically lower demand during that period. However, the airline has now decided to eliminate this service entirely and has also closed reservations for next summer.

This comes exactly one year after Delta cut its service to Dusseldorf (DUS), also out of Atlanta. That route was most recently operated three times weekly with a Boeing 767-300ER.

Delta's flight network for Central Europe (Source: Flightconnections.com)

Delta continues to serve three cities in Germany, including year-round flights to Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC), as well as seasonal flights to Berlin (BER).

Two German Cities Lose Transatlantic Links

Delta’s decision to pull out of both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart is quite significant. These are routes with deep histories. Delta has been flying to Stuttgart for decades, while the airline operated flights to Dusseldorf from 2006 to 2023, with some service pauses during the pandemic.

What’s particularly noteworthy is that for both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, Delta provided the only transatlantic connections, leaving these airports without any flights to North America.

In Stuttgart’s case, the airport has never had extensive transatlantic service, and we imagine a significant motivation for the Atlanta route was corporate contracts with Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, both headquartered in Stuttgart.

Delta B767-300ER (Source)

Dusseldorf’s situation is a bit different. It has a strong business presence and a generally affluent population. In the past, Dusseldorf had quite a bit of transatlantic service. For example, airberlin operated many routes from there before going out of business. Additionally, Lufthansa even operated transatlantic flights (including first class) back in the day, with destinations like Chicago (ORD) and Newark (EWR).

We suspect Delta’s decision to cut these routes reflects several factors:

• In general, business travel hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and we imagine these routes were heavily dependent on that rather than leisure demand.

• We’ve increasingly seen airlines try to integrate rail and air packages, and both Dusseldorf and Stuttgart are relatively short train rides from Frankfurt.

• Ultimately, costs in the airline industry have risen significantly in recent years, making many marginal routes harder to justify.

Bottom Line

Last year, Delta canceled its flights to Dusseldorf, and now Delta will cancel its flights to Stuttgart. These were the only transatlantic links for two German cities, which is, of course, a significant loss for consumers. Given that both cities can be reached by train from Frankfurt within a couple of hours, we can’t say we’re surprised, but it’s still disappointing to see two unique routes to Germany cut.