Font ResizeDelta Air Lines has dropped its corporate sponsorship of the high-profile Sundance Film Festival after six years and will be replaced by Southwest Airlines.
A Delta spokesman said the airline's budget for marketing programs has been stretched by last year's acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
"A lot has changed for Delta Air Lines, certainly with our much-increased network, with having many more locations that we have to cover and limited marketing" dollars, Paul Skrbec said.
Sundance is the second major Utah sponsorship that Delta has relinquished in the past few years. After a 15-year run, the carrier was outbid by Energy Solutions in 2006 for the naming rights to the former Delta Center arena in Salt Lake City.
Delta's westernmost hub is at Salt Lake City International Airport. The airline carries more than 70 percent of the passengers who use the airport.
Replacing Delta at Sundance will be low-cost carrier Southwest, the airport's No. 2 carrier, which is paying an undisclosed sum to promote its name on the festival's Web site and during the 10-day event next January.
Losing Delta will have little impact on the festival, said Katie Kennedy, spokeswoman for the Sundance Institute, which puts on the festival in and around Park City, and other locations.
"While we miss Delta, we are very fortunate to get Southwest as quickly as we did," Kennedy said.
Southwest sponsored a lounge at the festival in
"We've been a part of the festival for a couple of years now through a variety of opportunities. With this opportunity coming up for Southwest in 2010, we were able to become the official airline for Sundance," spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said.
