Delta ends Hartford-Los Angeles route

Less than two months after resuming a direct Hartford-to-Los Angeles flight, Delta Air Lines will shut down the high-profile service by the year's end.

The last flight will be Sept. 30, a Delta official said Monday. Although the direct flight performed well in the summer, the bookings weren't as strong for the fall and winter seasons.

"The Hartford-Los Angeles service started as a summer service with consideration for year-round service. At this time, its performance has proven only as a summer seasonal route," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.

Bradley officials had touted the non-stop service, giving the airport a direct West Coast connection.

Many airlines flying out to Bradley offer service to Los Angeles, but Delta's was the only direct flight. That direct flight resumed on June 10 after Delta previously discontinued the route in September 2008.

In June, Delta vice president Neel Shah, who is the airline's executive representative for Hartford, said the BDL-LAX flight typically was 80 percent full from out of Bradley and was 100 percent full from out of Los Angeles. The flight resumed, in part, Shah said because corporate air travel is making a comeback after falling off in recent years.

Since the bookings were strong over the summer and not for the fall, Delta will look at the types of travelers that flew direct from Hartford to Los Angeles when deciding the route's fate in the future, Black said.

The direct to Los Angeles flight could resume as a summer service in 2011, but that won't be decided until sometime in the future, Black said.

Delta is the leading air carrier out of Bradley. It offers 175 weekly flights out of Bradley, mostly to Florida and Midwest destinations.

The air line may add more destinations out of Bradley in the near future, Black said.

"On the whole, the market is performing well," Black said.