Delta to give up gates to cut costs

Delta Air Lines will give up about 170 gates at airports around the country as it combines its operations with merger partner Northwest Airlines, said Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson in a message to employees.

Delta has been replacing the Northwest name with the Delta name at airports in the past several weeks, and the process for all Delta and Northwest airport operations will be finished by mid-2010, Anderson said. The company recently relocated Northwest facilities in Orlando.

By giving up about 170 gates, Anderson said, “that, of course, translates into multimillions of dollars of rental savings.”

For Delta, giving up gates is one of the ways it is cutting costs through the merger, which closed last October.

Atlanta-based Delta is holding onto all of its gates and Northwest’s gates at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Delta spokesman Kent Landers said Friday.

The consolidation elsewhere could open up gates around the country.

“The airports where Delta was large before the merger and the airports where Northwest was large before the merger were all different airports,” Landers said.

Separately, Delta said it is lowering its fares from Cincinnati to persuade customers to fly instead of driving to neighboring airports.