Airtran gives up monopoly to Flint

[General Lee]

Delta Connection to Begin Nonstop Jet Service between Delta's Atlanta Hub and Flint, Mich.
Friday September 19, 10:01 am ET
Customers at Bishop International Airport get more flights, access to Delta's largest hub


FLINT, Mich., Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Delta Connection begins daily nonstop jet service on Saturday, Sept. 20, between Flint, Mich., and Delta Air Lines' (NYSE: DAL - News) hub at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. Delta Connection carrier Comair will operate the new flights with the popular Bombardier CRJ regional jets.
The new jet service to Atlanta expands service options for customers by complementing four daily jet flights Delta Connection offers currently between Flint's Bishop International Airport and Delta's second largest hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

"Flint customers have responded favorably to the convenience of Delta Connection's nonstop jet service to the Cincinnati hub," said Fred Buttrell, president and chief executive officer of Delta Connection, Inc. "By adding jet access to Delta's largest hub in Atlanta we can enhance opportunities for our customers to find the right flight to fit their travel itinerary."

Customers traveling through Delta's hub in Atlanta may choose from more than 900 daily departures to 195 nonstop destinations.

"Delta Connection arrived just over a year and a half ago at our facility and they have done extremely well," said Jim Rice, director of Bishop International Airport. "This schedule enhancement means that with just one connection, our passengers will even be able to travel to international destinations such as Japan, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and England."

Known as one of the quietest commercial aircraft in the world, the Bombardier CRJ has revolutionized air travel through its broad passenger appeal, convenience and comfort. The plane carries passengers in a comfortable two-by-two seating arrangement; every seat is a window or aisle, with no middle seats.

Delta Connection carriers include Delta's wholly owned subsidiaries Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Comair, additional regional carriers Atlantic Coast Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines and SkyWest Airlines, and codeshare partner American Eagle (in California). Delta Connection carriers operate more than 350 regional jets throughout North America. For more information, please contact Delta Reservations, 1-800-221-1212, or visit delta.com .

Flint to Atlanta Service (Effective Sept. 20, 2003)

Flight Departure Arrival Equipment
5165* 7:12 a.m. 9:00 a.m. CRJ
5166 11:57 a.m. 1:45 p.m. CRJ
5657 5:35 p.m. 7:23 p.m. CRJ

Atlanta to Flint Service (Effective Sept. 20, 2003)

Flight Departure Arrival Equipment
5166* 9:37 a.m. 11:27 a.m. CRJ
5226 4:00 p.m. 5:50 p.m. CRJ
5651 8:15 p.m. 10:05 p.m. CRJ
*Flights begin Sept. 21, 2003.






There now is a CHOICE from ATL--Flint. THANK GOD!!!!!!(I am Joking!)

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[PBRstreetgang]

Oh,
I was all excited, thought Larry Flint bought Airtran, just think Planes, Porn all brought to you by the next govenor of California.
BaaaHaaa Ha!
PBR
(just feeling kinda silly today)

 

[FLB717]

I thought RJ's were to busy flying MD88,737 routes to go to Flint.

 

[General Lee]

We are adding those flights back, and taking some 737-200s out of the desert. We also apparently have sent the 100 seater order (whatever it may be) to "purchasing"----but that is pure rumor at this point.(from a recurrent) I hope things start accelerating for us again.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Ty Webb]

They might as well name the story, "Dinosaur Delta Decides to Bleed Some More in Flint".

or, "Delta still has some nose left to cut off, face still not fully spited",

or, my personal favorite,

"Delta discovers yet another AirTran market it can't make money in; decides to make it an even 44 . . . . . announces service to FNT".

It hasn't worked yet, but, by God, they're still trying to find a market they can run us out of. Good luck to 'em, but if it didn;t work in the other 43, it ain;t gonna work here.

Anyone want to start a betting pool on when the shareholders will call for Leo's head? I'm thinking 1/05 but I suppose it could happen earlier.

 

[General Lee]

Ty,

Easy on the cockiness---I was making a joke. You really need to relax. But, it is true that you lost your monopoly and Delta/Comair will take some of your business. How will this hurt Delta again using a 50 seat RJ on a small market? It will probably hurt you more---but don't turn into a sour pu$$, please. Maybe you haven't heard, but revenue is starting to get back into the picture and fares are rising. Even United said that it's revenue has raised 15%, instead of the 9% they were expecting (according to their CFO--Jack Brace) Your theories of doom and gloom are not really happening. Seriously dude, you need to relax. Have a good one!!!

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Heavy Set]

Ty,

I am glad you were able to review the Delta accounting books. Do you understand how a hub system works? RJs can be profitable in a hub system if they are carrying "expensive" connection passengers on to Costa Rica or Bermuda or St. Thomas. So, your assumption that the market will be a money loser is waaaaay premature. But that doesn't stop you from making cutting remarks. You sound insecure.

Just my $.02

 

[klhoard]

FNT. . .

You guys are going to LOVE the layover there.

 

[FLB717]

Les,
Both myself, Ty, Gen and HvySet all have one thing in common. We like our companies and through barbs at one another. I tell General et. al. when I think they are wrong and when they are right. You on the other hand come across as a A$$ from some place that likes no one. So tell me great father of aviation what place do you work at? Yeah we have ties to VJ. Do the world a favor when you get off FltSim 2002 look up the number of large aircraft crashes just since 1950 or even 1970. Ill give you the Cliff-Note version for you. It is a partial list.

1950
UAL - 9
USAir - 3
AMR - 6
NWA - 5
DAL - 3

This does not include express/commuter or the multiple accidents at EAL or PAA, both have lost more than 6.

Gen, HvySet,
Delta does loose money in direct competition that is why RJ's are used on many new routes. For us or you to say we are loosing a monoploy yes but only FNT-ATL. Cmr has flown FNT-CVG for over a year. Them moving to ATL is a no-brainer. Im shure DFW-? should be more of a concern, of course you could care Less (Paul) maybe.

 

[f9driver]

Delta Flight Schedule

Don't mean to nag but it seems rather "graceless" to have pilots fighting turf battles about their companies schedules on this forum. Why not leave that for marketing? You can't win and all it does is showcase the pettiness of the poster and invite retaliation.

 

[fokkerjet]

as a consumer....

My wife and I are scheduled to fly airTran to FLL, out of FNT in November. The major reason for airTran was price.

I'm paying $413 total for two, roundtrip on a nice new shiney B717. Delta, wants $455 and I ride on a CRJ to either CVG or ATL, and then connect to mainline Delta the rest of the way. Northwest, out of FNT they are $529, and I connect through DTW. If I booked directly out of DTW, $432 on Continental and I get to visit EWR or HOU. Northwest's non-stop is $479. And if I want to tour the midwest and south, Southwest comes in at $614 with 2 stops and a change of planes in each direction. (ever changed planes on WN? Not a pretty sight if you ask me.)

I guess the point to all this is that at the end of the day, I'm much more willing to pay $42 less to ride on a cramped 717, than to have the endure the equally cramped competition at a bigger buck. Speaking for myself, it's all about price because service sucks no matter who you ride on these days............

 

[General Lee]

This has turned out to be funny. My point in this thread was that Delta was actually going to start Flint to ATL nonstop service---and, for those of you who remember, I have always made fun of Flint and Airtran's serivice there. Now, Delta's RJs will serve the route to ATL----It was a slam on myself. I have nothing against Flint since I have never been there. I do think it is interesting that Airtran has Saturday service to FLL from there, and they have the same out of DAY---which is good for the consumers who live there. I think our new RJ service to ATL will give the people who live in Flint more choices of overall cities they can connect to through ATL---like the Carribean (Airtran does go to Freeport---and so does ASA now....), South America, and some Florida cities that Airtran does not fly to---like DAB, SRQ, MLB, GNV, PFN, and VPS etc.... It is good for everyone, and Airtran may actually lose alittle business---but the overall pax loads may increase for everyone except--NW--which may lose out too.

FLB717,

You are correct about mainline not being able to make money on a mainline jet---but that may change eventually---we can only hope.

Bye bye---General Lee

 

[FLB717]

AAI and World Domination

ME:
AAI when I was hired had 31 cities and 301 departues, now 40+ with 500+. To day FNT, tomarrow the Carribean (sp?)...then... THE WORLD..isnt that right Pinky?

Pinky:
AAHHHhhh, yeah sure Brain

For those of you who dont know that was a take off of the WB Cartoon "Pinky and the Brain". Two mice who try to rule the world with a new plan every night. Much like airline managment.

 

[ERJDRVR]

To take on Airtran, Northwest will be announcing shortly, direct service to Orlando from FNT and GRR ( Grand Rapids).
The service is set to start in December.
As you can see, the DL/NW alliance is taking a shot at Airtran.

 

[Ty Webb]

Yawn.


DAL has been trying this crap for years. End result- AirTran makes money, buys new airplanes, expands ASM's at over 25% per year. DAL and NWA shrink, lose money, and keep throwing good money after bad.

The stockmarket seems to be betting on AirTran. . . .

 

[dfw]

AirTran hasn't been ran out of market by DL? I can think of one right away...Toledo. AirTran came into the market and dropped fares. Delta in turn beefed up capacity with CR7s to ATL and going to 8 (now 9) daily flights to CVG. Delta increase capacity, dumped fares when they saw their market share drop too much. Eventually they were able to grab 60% market share again and FL left.

Of course...FL also shot themselves in the foot by not rationalizing fares to a more profitable level. They only bothered to send advertising materials on dirt cheap fares, never a product directed towards businesses. Oops. Oh well...Owens Corning, Dana, OI, etc...all loved their SkyMiles I guess.

 

[mad691]

Airtran ran Delta "mainline" out BUF,ROC, and CAK. All used to have mailine flights out of ATL. So it goes both ways.

 

[dfw]

Yup it does go both ways. CAK is a bad example. 9/11 screwed the whole mainline idea there...initially it was suppose to be 3 daily MD-88s...then it went to 1 when all hell broke loose...then the CR7s became more viable.

However, they each have a win or two in their back pocket.

 

[General Lee]

Mad691,

Was it Airtran kicking the DL flights out of those cities, or the airplanes themselves doing it? If I remember it right, mostly 727s went into those cities, and after 9-11 we parked all of them. Sure, if they were really profitable, Delta probably would have put some MD-88s etc into those cities, but those MD-88s and 737s are still flying to their same cities. As we continue to bring out more 737-200s from the desert, maybe we will add them back to those cities---but in the mean time I hope our Comair 70 seaters are filling up--which I am sure they are. We have added some primarily Airtran cities---like Freeport and now Flint--- and we will try to take some of their market share or just create more for everybody. We shall see how everybody does.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[flx757]

General,

I for one, got the joke. However, AirTran serving FNT was never aimed necessarily at Flint itself. It was, and is, marketed as a very attractive alternative to DTW, and has worked quite well as evidenced by the large numbers of passengers who prefer to drive to FNT for the fares and the far less hassle travel experience compared to DTW. Personally, I think AirTran made an excellent move by serving FNT and drawing a huge number of passengers away from DTW, as evidenced by the consistently high load factors and ever increasing service from FNT. Evidently, DAL has seen this and is attempting to draw upon some of this traffic for itself.