Delta is adding another flight to Austin that seemingly makes no sense. They’re going to fly to Harlingen, Texas with a once-daily SkyWest regional jet.
- Delta has introduced intra-Texas flying on regional jets from Austin to McAllen and Midland
- These are very small markets and short flights, and the only places Delta flies from Austin are to its own hubs
- They are mostly flights meant to squat on gates at the Austin airport. The airport is basically full, and its new concourse won’t open until the 2030s.
Delta Air Lines Gate Austin
These are low fare non-stop routes and they aren’t going to carry a ton of (low yield) connecting traffic. But they’re short and flown with outsourced regional jets so they’re fairly cheap.
Harlingen is even stranger since it is just a 45 minute drive from McAllen, Texas which they’re also serving.
Whenever I note that these are money-losers, but they aren’t big money losers local readers point out that those flights out of McAllen are actually pretty full. Enilria has the explanation and it also explains why Harlingen makes sense for limiting losses.
- Delta’s flights out of McAllen are 69% full. Fares to Delta are as low as $26 one-way, but “still far fuller than we thought.”
- What’s interesting is that they’re basically full departing McAllen, and empty return from Austin. In fact, according to Enilria, “Northbound out of MFE, our sources say Delta achieved a 91% load factor in May.”
This almost never happens. Roughly speaking the number of passengers out of an airport are going to be the same as the number of passengers flying to the airport. Holidays and weekends will shift this somewhat when they straddle months, but still overall there’s balance. Not so here, and it is likely because McAllen is a border city. So is Harlingen!
Up to 20% of passengers flying out of airports near the U.S.-Mexico border are migrants. Migrants are being flown out – but not back. That would explain why flights from McAllen to Austin are full, and Austin to McAllen much less full. We can expect the same thing from Harlingen.
Delta needs Harlingen to stay close to even at the airport, because they cut Midland (not near the border!) from 3 to 2 flights daily and also reduced Boston service. The volume of migrants crossing the border from Mexico seems to be subsidizing Delta’s gate squat in Austin.