US carrier Delta Air Lines is to close its New York JFK – Amman route from June 1. The four times weekly service is one of a number of underperforming routes that will be axed by the carrier due to rising fuel costs and declining demand. In fact it expects its transatlantic capacity to decline by around four per cent this year as a result.

“With continued weak demand and fuel prices steadily increasing, Delta anticipates it will spend $3 billion more this year on jet fuel. Therefore we're adjusting our schedule where necessary to reduce underperforming flights, it said in a statement.

Delta launched the New York – Amman route in June 2008 and had carried approximately 10,000 O&D passengers between the two cities in the past year, a 49.1 per cent increase on the previous 12 month period. This had given it a 26.9 per cent share of the O&D market between New York and Amman and 25.5 per cent of the total traffic between Jordan and the United States.

The airline has also delayed the proposed relaunch of flights to Egypt. It suspended its New York JFK – Cairo link in February due to political instability in the country and had proposed a May restart date, but now says this has been “suspended indefinitely”. Delta says it will continue to offer links to both Amman and Cairo via Paris and Amsterdam on flights operated by joint venture partners Air France and KLM.

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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.