SCHUMER CRITICIZES DELTA CUTBACKS, FARES; HE SAYS FLIGHTS TO ATLANTA ARE IMPORTANT TO CENTRAL NEW YORK BUSINESS.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., lashed out Tuesday at Delta Air Lines for reducing service between Atlanta and Syracuse - including a new cutback scheduled for Friday - and for sharply raising fares on the route.

"In recent years, service between Syracuse and Atlanta has deteriorated to such a level that passengers are paying through the nose just to be sandwiched onto small, uncomfortable planes," said Schumer. "This is a major route for many of the 1.8 million passengers who use Hancock Airport every year."

He said service cuts have shrunk Delta's daily route capacity from 630 seats in 2005 to 270 seats this year. Though Delta still operates five flights a day from Syracuse to Atlanta, it has reduced seating capacity by switching from big jets to smaller ones, he said. Friday, the last of its larger jets, a 142-seat MD-80, will be replaced on the route with a 70-seat regional jet, he said.

A Delta representative said late Tuesday she had not seen Schumer's statement and could not immediately comment.

Schumer said the service cutbacks and price hikes are hurting the Central New York economy because many companies in the region do business in Atlanta, a major business and transportation hub.

"Flying between Syracuse and Atlanta should not be more expensive than flying to London, Hawaii or Hong Kong," he said in a letter to Gerald Grinstein, Delta's chief executive officer.

Schumer also criticized Delta in February after the Metropolitan Development Association, a nonprofit economic planning group in Syracuse, complained about fare hikes on Delta service between Syracuse and Atlanta.

Fares for round-trip flights between Syracuse and Atlanta used to cost an average of $500 to $600; now they're $900 to $1,400, he said.

Schumer arranged a meeting for June 15 in Atlanta with Delta executives, Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll and Irwin Davis, president of the MDA, to discuss the matter.

"They (Delta) need to recognize they are an important piece of the business world here," Driscoll said.

Davis said that, over the past year, the MDA and the city have persuaded US Airways to lower many of its fares in Syracuse, and they have gotten JetBlue Airways to expand its service from Hancock. But Delta's service to Atlanta has gone in the opposite direction, he said.

"The Atlanta route is our biggest problem," he said.

Association surveys show Central New Yorkers drive to Rochester to take flights to Atlanta because of the high fares in Syracuse.

In Rochester, Delta competes with AirTran Airways on the Atlanta route. In Syracuse, it has no such competition.

Kevin Schwab, director of air-service development for the MDA, said Delta is cutting back its Syracuse service because it's part of the airline's shift toward international flights, which require larger planes.

Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, filed Sept. 14, 2005, for reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The airline, based in Atlanta, emerged from bankruptcy April 30 as a much smaller carrier.

Rick Moriarty can be reached at 470-3148 or [email protected]

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