Chautauqua Shifts AWA Express ERJs To Delta

America West Airlines is shutting down its hub operations in Columbus, Ohio, clearing the way for Chautauqua to shift 12 of its Embraer ERJ-145s out of its America West Express fleet and add them to its Delta Connection fleet.

Chautauqua already has a total of 22 ERJs planned for its Delta Connection operations, with eight now in service and 14 on order for delivery throughout the year. The new total of 34 Delta Connection ERJs will consist of 19 50-passenger ERJ-145s and 15 37-passenger ERJ135s. Chautauqua currently operates an all-jet fleet consisting of 61 Embraer RJs, including 43 ERJ-145s, 15 ERJ-140s and three ERJ 135s.

The downsizing of Columbus from an America West hub to a destination city will take place between early April and mid-June. The carrier currently flies 49 daily departures involving both mainline aircraft and America West Express regional jets out of Port Columbus International Airport; it will gradually downsize to only four mainline flights per day.

In announcing its plans to drop Columbus as a hub, Scott Kirby, America West executive vice president for sales and marketing, said that one of the factors involved in the decision was the large number of regional jets now deployed by "many airlines throughout the east," resulting in an abundance of capacity "relative to demand in the markets served by Columbus today."

While the America West's plan to reduce its flights out of Columbus allows Chautauqua to shift its 12 ERJs over to Delta Connection, this does not necessarily mean the aircraft will move out of Columbus.

In announcing the addition of the 12 Chautauqua RJs to the Delta Connection fleet, Delta Connection President and CEO Fred Buttrell said that the new aircraft will allow Delta's regional operations to provide additional service to Columbus.

Buttrell told C/R News that five of the 12 Chautauqua aircraft will be used to add service to five new Delta markets out of Columbus: Boston Logan, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York's JFK, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. The Columbus service to those five destinations is scheduled to be inaugurated on April 15, he said.

The remaining aircraft will be used to operate from various Midwest cities to Florida, "enhancing the current Chautauqua position in the Orlando [Fla.] hub," with "some point- to-point flying intermixed," Buttrell said. Of the Florida operations, 80 percent will be hub flying and the rest point-to-point, he said. As an example, there would be a flight from Indianapolis to Orlando to Tampa, then directly back to Indianapolis. There would also be flights such as Columbus to Richmond, Va.

Converting the 12 aircraft from America West Express to Delta Connection will only take "about 10 days" per aircraft to paint and reconfigure the interior, he said.

Chautauqua said that it will continue to operate its 61,000 square foot maintenance facility plus its crew base at Columbus and that the transition from America West Express "will have no affect on Chautauqua Airlines employees."