DAL files w/ DOT for ATL-Beijing

[FDJ2]

Delta Air Lines Files With DOT to Serve China Non-stop From Atlanta
Wednesday September 22, 10:47 am ET Daily Boeing 777 Service Would Start in 2006, Subject to Government Approval

ATLANTA, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Customers in Atlanta and the eastern U.S. will have a non-stop air link with China beginning in 2006 if the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) awards Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL - News) permission to begin U.S.-China service.

[size=-2]ADVERTISEMENT[/size]on error resume nextplugin=(IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6")))Delta said today it has filed an application with the U.S. government seeking authority to operate daily, non-stop flights connecting Atlanta to Beijing, China in 2006. Delta's DOT application seeks authority to operate daily service connecting Atlanta to Beijing and the entire eastern U.S., using its Boeing 777 aircraft, which features Delta's award-winning BusinessElite service.

The filing responds to new China route authority the DOT will award following a U.S. government agreement with the Chinese government.

"We applaud the governments of the United States and the People's Republic of China for signing a landmark air services agreement that will more than double the number of U.S. airlines that may serve China and will permit a four-fold increase in weekly flights between the two countries over the next six years," said Jerry Grinstein, Delta's president and CEO. "Approval for Delta to begin this service will dramatically improve the competitive landscape for travel between the U.S. and China."

"Delta's service will be particularly beneficial for passengers traveling to and from the southeastern United States, one of the fastest growing and most underserved regions in terms of U.S./China gateways. This route would also enhance our strategic aim to grow Delta's network profitably, particularly to key international destinations," he said. "For many years, Delta has sought access to the China market. Combined with the huge connecting opportunities provided by our Atlanta hub - the largest hub in the world - this daily service will enable us to provide convenient, single-connection service to China and reduce flying time for vast numbers of travelers and shippers throughout the eastern and southeastern U.S. Customers traveling through the Atlanta gateway will have new one-stop service from more than 100 cities."

 

[~~~^~~~]

This is great news, the kind of news we need to be hearing from Delta management.

Hopefully the 777 fleet will grow at some point. Glad the airplane is not going away.

~~~^~~~

 

[Headfake14]

Big D still has a few more deliveries don't they...just delayed now?

 

[General Lee]

How about the "Super Hub" or Rolling Hub?

Press ReleaseSource: Delta Air Lines, Inc.



Delta Multiplies Flights and Destinations From Atlanta 'Super Hub'
Wednesday September 22, 9:57 am ET Airline will offer hourly service to nation's top business centers and more frequencies to 69 other cities

ATLANTA, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Delta (NYSE: DAL - News) customers soon will experience improved travel choices through increased flight frequencies and additional cities from the airline's Atlanta hub. Effective Jan. 31, 2005, Delta customers will have access to more than 1,000 daily flights to almost 200 destinations worldwide. This growth is part of Delta's network restructuring plan announced earlier this month.

"This new schedule translates into significantly enhanced customer service, allowing Delta to offer passengers better on-time service, more flight choices throughout the day and more time to make their connections," said Doug Blissit, vice president-Network Analysis.

The improved customer travel choices and frequencies is a result of changes Delta is making at its Atlanta hub to schedule flights more efficiently. Under the new schedule, flights will arrive in and depart from Atlanta in a steady stream throughout the day making it possible for Delta to increase customer service while safeguarding on-time performance.

New hourly service from Atlanta will include:

• Baltimore -- its 15 daily flights will complement existing hourly service to Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles, bringing the total number of Delta and Delta Connection flights to 46 from Atlanta to the airports serving the nation's capital
• Newark -- its 14 daily flights will complement existing hourly service to New York's LaGuardia. With service also to New York's JFK, Islip and White Plains airports, Delta and Delta Connection will offer a total of 43 daily flights from Atlanta to the world's leading business center; and
• Boston -- its 14 daily flights will resume hourly service to this key northeastern business center.

In addition, service is being increased to two key leisure destinations: - Fort Lauderdale -- service will be increased by three daily roundtrip flights for a total of 14; - Orlando -- service will be increased by three daily roundtrip flights for a total of 15.

In addition to the cities already mentioned, Delta and Delta Connection will also increase service to 67 additional cities from Atlanta. To cite a few examples, service to Memphis, Tenn., will increase by two daily roundtrip flights for a total of 10, and service to Honolulu will increase from one to two daily roundtrip flights. All new service is now immediately available for booking via delta.com.

The following chart provides a comparison of Delta's Atlanta schedule today versus what will be operating after Jan. 31, 2005: City Sept. Feb. Net Comments flights flights Change Albany, N.Y. 4 6 2 Albuquerque, N.M. 3 4 1 Alexandria, La. (1) 2 3 1 Allentown / Bethlehem / Easton, Pa. (1), (2) 4 5 1 Augusta, Ga. (1) 9 10 1 Austin, Texas (1) 7 8 1 Baltimore / Washington 13 15 2 Baton Rouge, La. (1) 6 7 1 Birmingham, Ala. 8 10 2 Boston 12 14 2 Buenos Aires 0 1 1 Burbank, Calif. 0 1 1 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 0 1 1 Charleston, S.C. (1) 8 10 2 Charlotte, N.C. (2) 9 11 2 Columbia, S.C. (1) 8 9 1 Corpus Christi, Texas (1) 2 3 1 Detroit Metro, Mich. 8 10 2 Eagle / Vail, Colo. 0 1 1 El Paso, Texas 1 2 1 Evansville, Ind. (1), (2) 4 5 1 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 11 14 3 Fort Walton Beach, Fla. (1) 9 11 2 Fort Wayne, Ind. (1) 3 4 1 Grand Rapids, Mich. (1) 5 6 1 Greensboro, N.C. (1) 9 11 2 Gulfport / Biloxi, Miss. (1) 7 8 1 Gunnison / Crested Butte, Colo. 0 1 weekly 1 weekly Saturday only; seasonal Harrisburg, Pa. (1) 4 5 1 Hartford, Conn. 7 10 3 Hayden / Steamboat Springs, Colo. 0 1 weekly 1 weekly Saturday only; seasonal Honolulu, Hi. 1 2 1 Islip, N.Y. (1) 3 4 1 Jackson, Miss. (1) 7 9 2 Jackson Hole, Wy. 0 1 weekly 1 weekly Saturday only; seasonal Las Vegas 8 9 1 Lafayette, La. (1) 2 3 1 Little Rock, Ark. (1) 5 7 2 Memphis, Tenn. 8 10 2 Meridian, Miss. (1) 3 4 1 Miami 10 11 1 Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minn. 7 10 3 Naples, Fla. 0 3 3 Nashville, Tenn. (1) 8 10 2 Newark, N.J. 12 14 2 Oklahoma City, Okla. (1) 3 4 1 Omaha, Neb. (1), (2) 3 5 2 Ontario, Calif. 2 3 1 Orlando 12 15 3 Norfolk, Va. 8 10 2 Palm Springs, Calif. 0 1 1 Pensacola, Fla. (1) 9 10 1 Peoria, Ill. (1) 3 4 1 Phoenix 5 6 1 Pittsburgh (2) 9 10 1 Providence, R.I. 5 6 1 Reno, Nev. 0 1 1 Richmond, Va. 7 10 3 St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. 1 2 1 San Antonio, Tex. (1) 8 10 2 San Diego, Calif. 5 7 2 San Jose, Costa Rica 1 2 1 Sao Paulo, Brazil 1 2 1 Savannah, Ga. 10 11 1 Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (1) 3 4 1 Tallahassee, Fla. (1) 8 9 1 Toledo, Ohio (1) 3 4 1 Tucson, Ariz. 2 3 1 Tulsa, Okla. (1) 3 4 1 Washington-Dulles 15 16 1 West Palm Beach, Fla. 9 10 1 Wichita, Kan. (1), (2) 5 6 1

(1) Flights on this city pair may be operated by Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines.
(2) Flights on this city pair may be operated by Delta Connection carrier Comair.


Wow, that didn't come out like the press release. The first number is how many flights they have now, and the second is what they will have in Feb of next year. If there is a (1)--ASA will fly the extra flight. If a (2) then Comair.



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[G4G5]

I guess that Fedex needs a few more Beijing slots

 

[skykid]

Continental is also jumping on the China bandwagon out of Newark. It looks like Delta is trying to follow UAL to Vietnam, they just applied for Atlanta - Puhn Tang starting in Dec 2005.

 

[General Lee]

I love going to Puhn Tang. Puhn Tang GOOOOOOOOD! Although it smells when the weather down there is tropical!



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[IAHERJ]

My money is on Continental getting the route authority out of Newark this time around. They are a bit more stable and have the aircraft and or the access to the aircraft needed for this long haul service.



IAHERJ

 

[General Lee]

I guess you didn't know that we already did proving runs for the US and Chinese Gov't for JFK to Beijing non stop service(2 or 3 years ago), and that we sold 2 767ERs to the Chinese Gov't for VIP use?(also 2 or 3 years ago)



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[MedFlyer]

I would say that both AA and CO have stronger applications than DL. But you never know, the DOT can work in mysterious ways.

General,

Why would it matter if DL sold some 767's to China? It's the DOT that gets to make the decision on who gets the route authorities.

 

[House_X]

Considering DAL only has one flight per day to Asia (NRT) I guess this is good news. DAL is now only 18 flights behind NWA and UAL....

 

[General Lee]

The DOT will possibly look at geographic NEED. DL has a hub in the Southeast that is not served by anyone nonstop from China, and can connect people to Florida faster, the Carribean, and South America. CO already has competition nonstop from China Airlines nosntop to JFK, and AA already has competition from UAL to ORD. I would think they would want another option for flyers, and ATL would give them that. As far as being more "stable"---UAL just got permission to fly to Ho-Chi-Min City in Vietnam, and they are doing a lot worse financially.



Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[sweptback]

The DOT will possibly look at geographic NEED. DL has a hub in the Southeast that is not served by anyone nonstop from China, and can connect people to Florida faster, the Carribean, and South America.

That's great, but how many people actually go to China from those areas? I'm sure the DOT will look at what makes the most sense given a finite number of slots... if it makes sense to add another flight to a market already being served then they'll do that.

However, say DL gets the authority. They already devote 3 777s to the NRT service (one inbound, one outbound, and one ready spare). They'd need a bare minimum of 2 more for just the one extra city served. That's over half their fleet! If they get any more Asia growth after that, they would be strapped thin on 777s (not to mention it would require the Atlantic routes to be downgraded to a 763 or 764, assuming they ever fly those trans-Atlantic).

If DL knew they would get the authority for the route I doubt they would have delayed deliveries of the 777s. They probably put their name in the hat, knowing that they would get denied, and that hopefully the DOT would look more favorably on them down the road when they have the resources to do it right.

 

[BigMotorToter]

AA will just wet lease Delta's 777's back to them to do the service.

Hey George, wan said she needs a new necklace!

 

[General Lee]

Sweptback,



Nice question......How many people will use that service to the WORLD'S Busiest airport.(in PAX numbers---kinda like China with the number of citizens).....??? Hmmmmmm. Well, Do you know how many Chinese restaurants are in Georgia? There is one at every street corner, and they are all DAMMM Tasty! I love that Sweet and Sour Pork baby! And they all know it. And, China has more people than any country, so I bet they all have friends in the Southeast, Florida, and they all want to open new restaurants in the Carribbean and all the way down to South America.(one stop baby! thru ATL)



And, where do you get the know-it-all to tell us what type of fleet we will or won't have in 2006? Maybe we will use our domestic 767-ERs on some INTL routes, and then use the remaining 777s to NRT and Beijing. Maybe we might buy some used United 777s. Maybe we'll send Comair over there as a feed machine----just think of our advertising "Nonstop to Beijing from ATL, and one stop RJ connection service to Guangzhou, Dallian, and Xiian." You guys would love that!



Thanks for considering us---and as far as you are concerned----you are DENIED!



Bye Bye--General Lee

PS--I am tired and I wanna go to bed....

 

[G4G5]

It looks like AA is only interested in ORD-ZBAA.