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Delta Air Lines was in the news recently after announcing its plans to resume the operation of its longest US domestic flight. Linking Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) in the federal state of Massachusetts with Honolulu International Airport (HNL) in Hawaii, the corridor in question is a whopping 5,095 miles (8,200 km) long. Indeed, such is the sheer length of this route that its distance exceeds many transatlantic services.
However, as important as these lengthy hops are for 
Delta Air Lines, a core part of its operating model relies on short feeder flights that give passengers from smaller airports access to its wider network via connections at larger hubs. Using scheduling information made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, let’s dive deeper into the data and examine the very shortest of Delta’s US domestic routes in February 2026.
The Shortest Of The Lot
This month, the shortest of the many Delta-marketed US domestic passenger routes on the schedule clocks in at distance of just 74 miles (119 km) long. Located entirely within the federal state of Michigan, the corridor in question feeds passengers from Capital Region International Airport (LAN) in Lansing to 
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), where Delta’s flyers benefit from a wide range of domestic and foreign links.
In February 2026, Delta has penciled in a grand total of 78 flights in each direction on this route, with these short services being operated on behalf of the Atlanta-based ‘big three’ legacy carrier and SkyTeam founding member by SkyWest Airlines’ regional jets from the Bombardier CRJ family. This frequency typically amounts to two or three rotations a day, with block times as short as 48 minutes. Commenting on its Detroit hub, Delta says that:
“The Motor City is home to five Sky Clubs that provide customers with thoughtful amenities like an assortment of meal offerings, premium beverage selections, and intentionally crafted lounge space.”
Several Others Are Under 100 Miles
Four more of Delta’s domestic routes are shorter than 100 miles this month, with the most frequently served being the 95-mile (153 km) corridor from Detroit to Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE). This will see 132 rotations, split between 83 operated by SkyWest Airlines and 49 operated by Endeavor Air. In any case, both of these regional feeder carriers favor rear-engined twinjets from the Bombardier CRJ series on this route.
It is followed by the 98-mile (158 km) hop from Detroit to MBS International Airport, whose name is derived from the three cities it serves: Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw. The carrier has planned 84 rotations on this route in February 2026, also by SkyWest’s Bombardier CRJ jets, with flights taking around an hour.
Meanwhile, Delta’s two other domestic routes under 100 miles this month are both served 78 times in each direction. The first is the 83-mile (133 km) hop from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Columbus (CSG) in Georgia, served by Endeavor’s CRJ jets. Elsewhere, the 78 76-mile rotations between Minneapolis (MSP) and Rochester (RST) are split between 51 with Endeavor’s CRJs and 27 with SkyWest’s Embraer E175s.
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The Shortest Mainline Route
A notable trend among all of the routes that we have discussed thus far is that all of them, while marketed by Delta Air Lines, are operated by its feeder partners under the Delta Connection regional brand. However, we do not have to look that much further in terms of distance to find the carrier’s shortest mainline route, which clocks in at just 106 miles (171 km) in length. Once again, this route feeds into Delta’s main hub in Atlanta.
The service originates at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) in the US federal state of Tennessee, with Delta’s aircraft of choice on this short domestic hop being the Boeing 717-200. These rear-engined twinjets are its second-smallest mainline aircraft, with aeroLOPA listing them as having 12 first class and 98 economy seats, compared to 12 first and 97 economy on the Airbus A220-100. The flights from CHA to ATL run up to thrice a day.
