Airline cuts five Las Vegas flights

Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 3:49 a.m.

Delta Air Lines will discontinue five of its 27 daily round-trip flights to Las Vegas because of a dispute with pilots.

Delta, the fourth-busiest airline at McCarran International Airport, plans to cut direct flights to and from Boston, New Orleans, Tampa and Orlando, Fla., and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based airline.

Computer schedules show the last New Orleans flight will be Saturday, the last New York trip will run Tuesday, the final Tampa flight will occur Wednesday and the Boston and Orlando flights will be discontinued Jan. 30.

"We have reduced some seat capacity effective in February, that is mainly late-night flying, those that would get in at around midnight, and this is due to pilot unavailability," said Delta spokeswoman Kay Horner. "We felt like that would lessen the impact on customers."

Delta and its pilots are locked in a contract dispute about overtime and the late-night flights.

Delta has given no indication if the flights would be reinstated should the airline resolve its differences with its pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association.

UBS Warburg gaming industry analyst Robin Farley said the five canceled flights represent about 900 seats per day into the city, or about 20 percent of Delta's Las Vegas seat capacity.

The five destinations where Delta is discontinuing service are served with nonstop flights to Las Vegas by other carriers.

Daily nonstops are offered to New Orleans by Southwest Airlines, Boston by America West Airlines and New York by America West and National Airlines. Tampa and Orlando are served with daily flights by America West and Saturday-only flights by Southwest.

Delta will continue to offer one-stop and connecting service flights to the five cities.

The nation's third-largest airline, Delta is the No. 4 airline at McCarran behind Southwest, America West and United Airlines, carrying 1.2 million passengers from January through October.