Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

NW is now the carrier with the most service to and from IND. Including service to their three hubs, they offer nonstop service to 25 destinations. They now occupy all of Terminal A. Here is a link to the NW web page on IND service: http://www.nwa.com/features/newindservice/

Service is on a variety of aircraft to these cities:

Boston (BOS) - 3x daily, CRJ
Hartford (BDL) - 2x daily, CRJ
New York Laguardia (LGA) - 3x daily, A319/DC9/CRJ
Philadelphia (PHL) - 3x daily, CRJ
Washington Reagan National (DCA) - 3x daily, DC9/CRJ
Raleigh/Durham (RDU) - 2x daily, CRJ
Orlando (MCO) - 2x daily, DC9
------West Palm Beach (PBI) service discontinued-----
Fort Lauderdale (FLL) - 1x daily, DC9
------Miami (MIA) - service discontinued-------
Fort Myers (RSW) - 1x daily, DC9
-----Sarasota (SRQ) service discontinued-----
Tampa (TPA) - 1x daily, DC9
Cancun (CUN) - seasonal Saturday service, A320
-----Austin (AUS) service discontinued------
-----Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) service discontinued -------
*Memphis (MEM) - 3x daily, A319/DC9/CRJ
-----St. Louis (STL) service discontinued----
*Detroit (DTW) - 8x daily, A320/A319/DC9/CRJ
*Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) - 5x daily, A320/A319/DC9
Kansas City (MCI) - 3x daily, CRJ
-----Denver (DEN) service discontinued-------
-----Phoenix (PHX) service discontinued ------
Las Vegas (LAS) - 1x daily, A319
Los Angeles International (LAX) - 1x daily, A319
Seattle (SEA) - seasonal 1x daily, A319 CURRENTLY OUT OF SEASON

* NW hub city

I will try to update this thread as service changes are announced

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Excellent idea. BTW. SEA and PHX are seasonal flights.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Ahh, yes. I forgot to put that on the list. And actually, the PHX service has already "seasonally" ended, as of May 1. The Sarasota seasonal service ended April 2. The West Palm seasonal service ended May 1, and the Miami seasonal service ended April 30.

So actually, they're only serving 22 destinations nonstop from IND. I suspect that the "seasonal" destinations aren't so much seasonal routes as they are experiments in guaging demand from Indy, competitive weapons to drive TZ further into the dirt, and marketing ploys to allow them to beef up their number of nonstop flights.

Anyway, I've updated the list to indicate that PHX and SEA are seasonal, but interested readers should follow the web link and review the seasonal periods and numbers of flights. I don't guarantee that my info is accurate and up to date, though I'll try my best.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

you should post the NW schedule.

i dunno...for whatever the reason.

perhaps this should go in site related.

good idea, stlgph.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Eh, I figured that's what the link was for. I don't just want to regurgitate info on the forum. Besides, it's still changing a lot. And can you imagine trying to keep up with it when DST ends for all the other states?

Good suggestion, but I'm not motivated to do it.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I updated the master listing on the top to reflect the discontinutaiton of STL service and to show which "seasonal" flights are not currently in season. (Somehow this phrase always comes to mind when talking about seasonal flights: "Wabbit season! Duck season! Wabbit season! Duck season!)

So technically speaking, NW is currently only offering service to 21 cities ex-IND, not 25.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Just in case we're counting (and we are), NW service is now down to 18 cities. They've cancelled altogether the service to Dallas, Austin, Denver, and Phoenix, as well as Sarasota, West Palm, and Miami. And they've reduced frequency to one flight daily on several routes. There have also been aircraft changes on some of these routes.

I updated the sticky post to reflect the current status.

This all happened a little quietly, but we all knew this would eventually occur. NW rolled out the bandwagon with great fanfare (nonstops to a jillion cities! they announced...) But when they roll back service, there is no great announcement.

Some of this is seasonal perhaps. But the previously seasonal routes, like PHX, would still be on their website, just out of season. Now, many of those cities have been completely dropped. Does this show NW's weakness or IND's weakness?

Me, I think it shows more about NW's bankruptcy and troubles with relations between NWA and their regional carriers. There was obviously enough load on those routes for NW to try them in the first place. Perhaps they didn't work because of the low fares NW charged - they just couldn't make enough money.

So is it an opportunity? You guys have all talked about Airtran setting up a second hub here. I still don't see IND as a viable large hub - but if FL wanted to make IND a bigger focus city, they could certainly pick up some of the routes that NW dropped.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Alot of the 1x downgrades were from around the end of Dec to Jan 15 or so. The routes all picked back up to normal levels after that. Not counting the cities you mentioned as ended. And though it is not listed on the map Denver is returning this summer. Flights 1936/1937. I believe they resume the first week or two of June right along with Seattle.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

When you mentioned the 1x downgrades I thought you were refering to the stuff that was done over the holidays. I think that looking at the updated flight list only LAS went from 2x to 1x. TPA might have been a 2x but I think it was a seasonal 2x only. Can't swear to it. NW did have a few seasonal additional flights to a few cities. But after what they did to MKE I'm not too worried about it.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

As I was updating the sticky, I was thinking to myself that I should keep track of the changes to answer this very question. But IIRC, MCO went from 3x to 2x, FLL went from 2x to 1x, MEM and MSP each dropped by one daily, and of course the LAS service. I'm sure they'll add the additional LAS flight on a seasonal basis, probably the MCO and FLL flights too. But it was interesting to note they reduced hub frequency. They also changed birds. But in the case of MSP, they traded up to bigger planes and dropped one daily. In the case of MEM, they dropped a daily AND traded the 757 for a CRJ. So I'd say they dumped about 150 seats/day from that route.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Going through the threads I see this one is going to need updating. Much has changed since the last update.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

Sorry, I've been shirking my duties as NW Moderator.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

No worries. I had completely forgotten about it until I was doing some housework in the forums.