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Delta Air Lines is adding more flights next year at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, in a bid to gain market share in one of the country’s fastest-growing airports. The carrier plans to add 11 nonstop flights from Austin in April, giving it almost 50 peak-day flights, the airline said Friday. Flight additions include Midland-Odessa and McAllen in Texas, as well as Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina, Nashville and Cincinnati. The announcement comes weeks after rival American Airlines said it planned to cut 21 Austin routes. It will also route connecting passengers through the hub, a shift for the Atlanta-based carrier. “This is the first time we’ll be using Austin as a connecting point to access our network with the addition of McAllen and Midland,” Eric Beck, managing director of network planning, said in an interview. “For us here at Delta, Texas has historically been a white space for opportunity on our network.” Austin’s population has grown rapidly in recent years and the city has drawn investment from big companies such as Apple, Tesla and IBM. Beck said no single company drove the decision to expand in Austin. But “over time as we talk to our corporate accounts and look to where they’re traveling that we don’t have service,” McAllen and Midland, a base for the oil-rich Permian Basin, topped the list, he added. Beck said both cities have strong business communities and tourism attractions.<br/>

Delta Air Lines is extending its suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, saying it has halted its service there through March 29, 2024. Atlanta-based Delta previously operated flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from Atlanta, New York and Boston, but along with other carriers suspended flights to Israel in October at the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Delta soon stopped taking new bookings for flights to Israel from Atlanta and Boston beyond Nov. 1, then extended the suspension of all service to and from Tel Aviv for weeks. The airline’s decision to cancel its Tel Aviv flights through late March indicates the expected lasting impact of the war. Delta said it is “continuously monitoring the security situation in Tel Aviv.”<br/>

Air France-KLM CE Ben Smith believes the group has enough flexibility to ensure KLM can continue to operate its full long-haul network in the event of any reduction in slots amid the Dutch state’s efforts to reduce noise around Amsterdam Schiphol airport. The outgoing Dutch government last month pulled its plan to unilaterally reduce slots at Schiphol from next summer as it seeks a 20% reduction in noise at the airport. Legal challenges from airlines and trade body IATA had argued the move did not follow the “Balanced Approach” procedure – a process under which different options are explored before cuts are made – and concerns raised by the European Commission and the US Department of Transportation. KLM has itself outlined a three-pronged approach – based around use of new aircraft, incentivising operation of quieter aircraft at night and operational improvements — which it says can meet Dutch government night-time noise targets without requiring forced capacity reductions. Speaking on an Air France-KLM investor day in Paris on 14 December, Smith said: ”KLM has shown an alternative, which we think is quite solid and can achieve what the government is looking for, and that will be our input.” But he says the airline has “quite a lot of flexibility” to mitigate in the event that it has required to reduce slots at Schiphol. “We’ve got full flexibility in our long-haul, medium-haul and regional fleet by gauging up with the orders we have made, so we are confident we can maintain our seat capacity,” Smith says. <br/>