Delta’s Play In Orlando—New Focus City Strategy Emerging?

Delta Air Lines just did something that, on the surface, looks small: seven new Saturday-only flights from Orlando. But the implications run much deeper.

Come December 20, Delta will begin service from Orlando (MCO) to Birmingham (BHM), Cincinnati (CVG), Columbus (CMH), Kansas City (MCI), Milwaukee (MKE), Omaha (OMA), and Raleigh-Durham (RDU). All of these routes are seasonal and operate only once a week—on Saturdays—through April 11, 2026.

That’s not a major hub expansion. It’s not even daily service. But it is unmistakably strategic.

In the world of network planning, this isn’t just a test. It’s a thesis: that Orlando—with its year-round demand, family traffic, and explosive growth—is ripe to be more than just another spoke. And Delta may not be alone in seeing the writing on the wall.

The Orlando Experiment: Point-to-Point Without a Hub

Delta’s choice to launch seven point-to-point routes from a non-hub airport is uncharacteristic of the airline’s traditional operating model but not entirely without precedent. Delta runs a tight hub-and-spoke system, with fortress hubs in Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), Salt Lake City (SLC), and Detroit (DTW).

But Orlando is Florida’s busiest airport, with more than 58 million passengers in 2023. And it’s growing. New terminals, new lounges, and new traffic from both coasts have made it more than just a spring break hub. It’s a year-round revenue machine.

So why these seven cities? They’re not all obvious choices. Omaha and Milwaukee aren’t top tourist feeders and having grown up in Omaha, I can see the appeal, but Southwest has long offered a nonstop option. But each offers solid catchment areas with Delta loyalty, limited nonstop competition, and the kind of secondary-market demand that blooms when the fares are right.

Operating on Saturdays allows Delta to capture the peak leisure traveler without eating into fleet commitments elsewhere. Business flights occupy the fleet Sunday through Friday but no one travels for business on Saturday yet there is, of course, plenty of leisure demand for Saturday to Saturday weeklong vacations. These aircraft would otherwise sit idle so it makes sense to use them somewhere. For example, from my home airport in Pittsburgh, American and Delta both operate nonstops to Cancun on Saturdays during peak season as well despite a lack of hub status.

It’s also worth noting what’s not happening here: there’s no mention of a base for aircraft or crew. These are likely turn flights operated by regional partners, but Delta hasn’t yet specified which ones. In classic Delta fashion, they’re dipping a toe without making a splash.

Delta’s History of Non-Hub Surprises: Remember Indy or Pittsburgh to Paris?

Delta has stepped outside its comfort zone before. A fellow travel blogger called some of Delta’s random trans-Atlantic flights the “Delta Dart Board.” Remember Indianapolis (IND) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG)? That nonstop, which launched in 2018, was the crown jewel of Indiana’s international aspirations. But it quietly disappeared from Delta’s schedules after the COVID-19 pandemic and has not returned. Pittsburgh had 5x/week service on a 757 to Paris CDG as well, and it incidentally is part of the reason I ended up in Pittsburgh rather than elsewhere in the US – but that’s another story for another time.

Both routes had all the makings of a prestige play—long-haul international, a partner hub on the other end, and ample local support. But Delta didn’t stick with it. The route hasn’t reappeared.

Still, Delta has shown that it’s not averse to creative network design when the math checks out. In other words: we tried, it didn’t work, we’re out.

Focus Cities Like Orlando Offer Unique Upside

Compare that to American Airlines’ well-documented misadventure in Austin. The carrier invested heavily in building out Austin as a focus city, adding dozens of new flights to secondary destinations. It was a bold, if not fully baked, experiment. Less than two years later, they pulled the plug on nearly all non-hub flying, declaring that Austin would return to its “core connectivity role.”

Focus cities are not new. JetBlue’s play in Boston, Southwest’s dominance in Las Vegas show how these “non-hub hubs” can drive tremendous value. But they only work under the right conditions.

Orlando hits a lot of those marks.

The demand is consistent year-round. It’s not just summer or holiday peaks—Orlando has a rolling calendar of conventions, events, and steady family travel. Pair that with strong infrastructure and ongoing investment in the airport itself, and you’ve got a breeding ground for smart capacity deployment.

Other cities that mirror this kind of dynamic include Las Vegas (LAS), Cancun (CUN), and New York-LaGuardia (LGA). All are heavily trafficked, tourism-centric markets that benefit from consistent demand and minimal seasonality. Airlines can use these cities to test new routes, keep aircraft moving, and generate revenue without building out massive operational overhead.

For consumers, it’s a win. More flights, lower fares (thanks to competition), and better connectivity. For airlines, it’s a hedge against the volatility of relying solely on hubs that can become congested, weather-impacted, or constrained by slot limitations.

Will Delta (and Others) Lean Into This Trend?

So is Delta’s move in Orlando the start of a broader shift? Or is this simply a short-term response to excess fleet availability and low opportunity cost for regional aircraft on Saturdays?

Here’s the thing: Orlando could very well be a prototype. If the flights perform, we could see Delta adding more frequencies—or replicating the model in other cities like San Diego, Tampa, or Nashville. But there’s also the chance this is a very specific response to competitive pressure and capacity constraints elsewhere.

Airlines are, by nature, both experimental and risk-averse. They’ll try almost anything once. But they’ll also abandon a project just as fast if the numbers don’t pan out.

Still, Delta doesn’t make network moves lightly. If they’re investing in even limited point-to-point flying from Orlando, it means they see a return. It may not be a new hub. But it could be the start of a new focus city strategy—one built not on loyalty and corporate contracts, but on raw, unrelenting demand.

What makes Orlando unique is that Southwest also offers nonstop flights to many of these smaller markets. Spirit and JetBlue share about 25% of all traffic at MCO while Southwest has that much by themselves; Frontier has 10% of the market. Delta already accounted for 12% of all traffic at the airport as of October 2024. As a (Saturday) focus city, it’s competing predominately with LCCs and ULCCs meaning that even if planes are full, fares will be cheap and even a success for occupancy could be a failure financially.

Final Thoughts

Whether or not Delta calls Orlando a “focus city,” the playbook looks familiar. Point-to-point routes, smart scheduling, and careful deployment of regional resources. It might not be a grand strategy—yet—but it certainly walks and talks like one. Moving equipment to focus on a busy leisure market with second and third tier cities is a departure from the norm, but it could be the start of something new.

We’ve seen this movie before. Carriers chase opportunity, test new ground, and sometimes retreat. But when the market fundamentals are this strong, it’s hard not to think Orlando could be the first of many.

After all, a focus city by any other name still smells like opportunity.

What do you think?