Virgin adds Orlando flights, Delta keeps Texas routes

By Joe Brancatelli

Delta Air Lines has been slashing and burning its hub in Cincinnati for years. Once offering more than 400 flights a day, Cincinnati’s service has plummeted to about 160 a day. But Delta is apparently rethinking at least some of its cuts on flights to Texas. Two routes being reinstated: Flights to San Antonio, cut last year, resume in early May, and service to Austin, killed in December, 2008, returns in June.

The never-ending soap opera that is Virgin America took a few more twists recently. The airline, which has been pummeled by losses and ownership chaos since long before its 2007 launch, is overhauling its route network again. Out is John Wayne/Orange County Airport, which Virgin America will abandon on May 26. In is Orlando, which the carrier is adding on August 19. There will be one daily nonstop flight from both Los Angeles and San Francisco. And Virgin is also asking U.S. and Canadian authorities for the right to fly to Toronto. The airline claims it can start service there as early as June.

Although United Airlines has yet to confirm it, officials at Oxnard Airport in California say the carrier is pulling its three daily turbo-prop flights from the airport. Oxnard officials say the flights to Los Angeles International,about 55 miles away, will end on June 8. That is Oxnard’s last commercial service.

American Eagle says it will operate seasonal flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to Myrtle Beach between April 6 and October 31. Eagle will use 44-seat regional jets on the route.

Here’s a route I bet you didn’t know we needed: Minneapolis-Gander, Canada-London/Stansted. The flights were announced this month by Sun Country Airlines, which will use a Boeing 737-800 on the route. That explains the Gander stop. A 737 can’t make it nonstop between Minneapolis and London. Service will operate between June 11 and August 15.