Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) has applied for an exemption authority from the Federal Aviation Administration to be allowed to launch daily service between Lansing and Washington National, a route that Sun Country Airlines (SY, Minneapolis St. Paul International) has announced it will drop by September 30.

Sun Country currently operates between Lansing and Washington D.C. under a FAA exemption allowing it to operate the flights without holding a slot despite the high density rules in place at Reagan National airport. Delta argues in its application that it would be in the consumer's interest to let Delta operate a daily non-stop service on the route using Shuttle America (Fort Wayne International) E170s operating as Delta Connection and that it would like to take over the exemption previously granted to Sun Country (since it does not want to use one of its own 49 slot pairs for the service).

Delta follows American which had similarly applied to get the Sun Country exemption transferred to be able to launch its own daily service on the route starting November 5. Delta already serves Lansing from Detroit Metropolitan and Minneapolis St. Paul International and currently has a capacity share of approximately 50% at the city in Michigan. American does not yet serve the city.