Manchester Airport has been dealt another blow as Delta Air Lines says it is to withdraw its New York service in January.

The US carrier has been operating a daily service from Manchester to JFK since 2006 using a Boeing 747. According to reports, the decision to drop the route was due to a drop in demand for the service over the winter.

Delta will continue to offer a year-round Manchester-Atlanta service.

Last month Ryanair announced its intention to cut nine of the ten routes it operated from the Manchester Airport in a bid to ‘preserve their high cost base’.

Meanwhile BMI recently withdrew all its transatlantic flights from Manchester and in October 2008, British Airways dropped their Manchester-JFK service in favour of a new route from Gatwick to New York; a move which came as a huge blow for the airport operators Manchester Airport Group.

Delta’s system traffic in August 2009 decreased 2.2 percent compared to August 2008 on a 3.2 percent decrease in capacity, and load factor increased 0.9 points to 86.6 percent.