Delta Air Lines added a new hub at JFK to strengthen its international business traffic as it restructures in bankruptcy. The company will be adding flights to JFK throughout the northeast to feed its international traffic out of JFK International Airport.

This is a logical transition for Delta. They have had very little domestic traffic coming into JFK recently, so it has been difficult to feed their international flights. It also will put some pressure on JetBlue as that carrier is already experiencing losses with a brand new fleet and low labor costs.

They have the largest capacity (to Europe) but not a very good ability to get (passenger) feed from the rest of the country,” said Roger King, an analyst at CreditSights. “What they’re doing is trying to increase that, which is positive.”

A few of the planned routes overlap with destinations flown by low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways Corp., Delta Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst said on a conference call.

“There is some overlap,” he said, “but that is certainly not why we did it.”

“This is really more about connectivity at JFK … It is more focused on us building a true hub here.” via Reuters