The Shuttle

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Delta Air Lines' decision to add first-class cabins to its shuttle flights between New York, Boston, and Washington sounds like good news. It's not—it's another sign that the East Coast shuttles are a dying breed.

Delta, which says its up-front sections will be ready by the end of November, is matching a move made several years ago by the US Airways Shuttle, the distant progeny of the once-omnipotent Eastern Air Lines Shuttle. Although Delta didn't say so, its rationale is the same too. The shuttles have become less profitable, busy, and important; configuring the aircraft with standard first- and coach-class cabins means that the planes can be moved around the carriers' entire flight systems.

Few air routes have their own dedicated aircraft, of course, so what's the big deal? This move comes on the heels of other ego-bruising shuttle realities. Several years ago, both carriers dumped their service guarantees: Show up on time to fly and you'll get a seat, even if they have to roll out a plane just for you. Discontinuing that relic of the Eastern Shuttle's glory days allowed the carriers to strip several backup aircraft from the shuttle fleet. The carriers have also switched to smaller aircraft that carry fewer passengers per flight and fly less frequently than ever, especially during off hours and weekends.

It's remarkable that we are talking about a declining shuttle market when New York bankers, Washington politicians, and East Coast media elites are busily remaking the underpinning of the nation's economy. Fifteen years ago, aviation journalist Barbara Petersen called the shuttles "the fabric that bound together the Northeast elite, a democratic institution that treated celebrities and working stiffs alike with the same legendary indifference."

But the myth of the shuttle has run smack into numeric realities. In their late-1980s heyday, the two shuttles served a total of about five million flyers a year. As recently as 2000, about 4.7 million passengers piled on board. Yet only 3.2 million customers flew a US Airways or Delta Shuttle flight in the 12 months ended in June.

Where have all the flyers gone? Some have been replaced by technology. Email, PDFs, and video teleconferencing mean fewer couriers and low-level executives are needed to shuttle documents around. The superelite have moved to private jets, making New York to Washington one of the most popular routes for corporate aircraft.

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