Delta Airlines has announced their decision to end their nonstop service between New York's La Guardia Airport and Nassau for economic reasons.

The decision was not influenced by loads, or demand for their Nassau service but rather due to yields, as an increasing number of low fare carriers offered fares well below Delta's seat cost with one-stop options, primarily over the South Florida gateways of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

Whereas Delta's loss in capacity from La Guardia represents some 50,000 seats; the combined increase in capacity from South Florida and Central Florida to The Bahamas amounts to some 109,000 seats, more than twice the capacity lost by Delta's withdrawal.

New York retains its position as one of the strongest markets for The Bahamas, due to traffic from that market through South Florida gateways that serves to supplement traffic brought by direct services.

The Director-General of Tourism explained that although well positioned with up to three daily nonstop Jet Blue services from airports in the New York area and up to two daily services from Newark by Continental Airlines, Nassau/Paradise Island continues to attract even more New York area visitors over the Florida gateways of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. Fares from these gateways are generally lower than the nonstop due to the economies of scale that carriers enjoy by feeding into short haul, higher frequency service options over Florida.

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