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"Delta is the Rising Star at Sea-Tac"

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Voice Of Reason

Reading Is Fundamental !
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Sep 21, 2004
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"Delta’s the rising star at Sea-Tac"

"Merger with Northwest Airlines makes carrier a more significant presence at Sea-Tac

JOHN GILLIE; Staff writer
Last updated: May 2nd, 2010 03:37 PM (PDT)

A vast, white hangar looms out of the landscape just short of the Sea-Tac Airport terminal building as you approach from the south.
For decades, the hangar bore the Northwest Airlines name emblazoned in 12-foot-tall letters on its side.
Now, Delta’s name stands bold against the light-colored hangar wall.
The changing of the guard at the hangar is more than mere symbolism. Delta is assuming new prominence after playing in the middle of the pack for years among Sea-Tac’s more than two dozen airlines.
The airline now is second busiest at Sea-Tac behind No. 1 local duo of Alaska Airlines and its sister carrier Horizon Air, both of which are owned by Alaska Air Group.
Alaska Air Group saw 52 percent of Sea-Tac’s air traffic in the first quarter; Delta saw about 8 percent of all air traffic, surpassing longtime Sea-Tac powerhouse United Airlines, and relative Sea-Tac newcomer, Southwest Airlines.
During peak season, Delta will have 40 Sea-Tac flights daily and 2,000 local employees.

RISING MARKET SHARE

Certainly, much of that rising market share is a result of Delta’s two-year-old merger with Northwest Airlines. Northwest had a long, historic connection to Sea-Tac and the Pacific Northwest.
Northwest Airlines was the first to fly an overseas international flight from Sea-Tac when it began service to Tokyo in 1949.
When the airport built its North and South Satellite terminals in the ’70s, Northwest dominated the south satellite, while United’s home was the North Satellite.
Delta also inherited Northwest’s Pacific route network. Over the years, Northwest served Tokyo, Hong Kong and Osaka from Sea-Tac. At the time of the merger, however, Northwest went just to Tokyo’s Narita Airport from Sea-Tac.

ROUTES TO ASIA

Now, Delta plans to make Sea-Tac its Asia hub on the West Coast with new flights to Beijing and Osaka in June, Delta Vice President Steve Sear said.
Flights to Beijing start June 4; Osaka service begins June 7.
Delta also plans to bolster its existing flights from Sea-Tac to Amsterdam, with an additional flight three days a week.
There’s also a current nonstop flight to Paris that Northwest makes in partnership with Air France.
Delta also is hotly pursuing a new international route from Sea-Tac to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. That airport, closer to Tokyo’s core, has only recently opened to foreign carriers.
If Delta wins the route – multiple carriers are seeking to link Haneda to various U.S. gateways – it’s likely to retain the Tokyo Narita Airport flight, too, said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott. That’s because Delta currently makes multiple connections from Narita to other Asian destinations, Elliott said.
In supporting Delta’s Haneda application, local civic leaders have pointed out what they consider Sea-Tac’s advantages: its closer distance and shorter flight times to Tokyo than other major U.S. airports, the links of the area’s major employers such as Boeing, Nintendo, Starbucks and Microsoft to Japan, and its need for more Asian air service to allow it to compete with other hub cities.

DELTA’S NEW HUB

For Delta, Sea-Tac will be a different kind of international hub. Most airlines feed international traffic into an airport where they have a huge network of their own flights to carry passengers to and from other cities. Delta follows that pattern at Atlanta, at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport and at Detroit.
At Sea-Tac, Delta is relying on a different business model. The airline will connect those Asian flights to its own domestic hubs of Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Memphis, Cincinnati and Detroit from Sea-Tac. Delta will add more frequent flights from its hubs at JFK Airport and Atlanta.
But it will depend on a tight partnership with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air to broaden the network to feed passengers to and from its international routes.
Eighteen months ago, Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson and Alaska Air Group Chairman Bill Ayer stood shoulder to shoulder in the arrivals hall at Sea-Tac to announce that grand new alliance.

INTERNATIONAL REACH

Delta, by then the world’s largest airline by virtue of its merger with Northwest, and Alaska, the smallest but one of the more consistently profitable of the nation’s legacy carriers, would partner up to offer seamless new service on Alaska’s network reaching out from Sea-Tac and other West Coast airports, the executives said. Alaska and Delta would share some flights, coordinate their schedules for smooth transfers and share access to each other’s clubs at major Northwest airports.
Together, the three airlines will have 267 daily departures from Sea-Tac reaching 64 nonstop destinations.
The partnership gives Alaska an international reach and Delta a West Coast network.
“Alaska Air Group is a perfect alliance partner for Delta as we pair our expansive international network with theirs across the West Coast to build a platform for international growth from the West,” said Delta’s Anderson.
The full consummation of the partnership is happening later than both partners had originally expected. Delta originally had set the inaugural flight to Beijing for March 1, 2009, to follow up on the Anderson-Ayer partnership announcement. But the economic recession put those expansion plans on ice, while the carriers sorted out the new post financial-crash world.

FANCY NEW ‘FLIERS CLUB’

Now that the carriers are recovering from the recession’s effects – Alaska made its best first-quarter profit this year since 1999 – plans are brewing for an international ramp-up.
Delta is working with Sea-Tac Airport to build a $5 million “premium fliers club” atop the south satellite terminal where both its international and domestic flights will originate. The new club’s decor will resemble the atmosphere the airline created in its new club in Miami, said Sear.
Sea-Tac is one of a few locations where the airline is building and expanding its club for its best customers, he said.
The airline is also spending more than $1 billion to improve its international service with new lie-flat seats in premium classes, new seat-back video capabilities and new leather seats in coach.
Some airline analysts have hinted that if the Alaska-Delta partnership proves to be a good fit, Delta might consider buying Seattle’s hometown airline. The two companies have compatible fleets, similar pilot contracts and networks with little overlap.
But Alaska, while saying that it wants to do what’s best for investors, has never shown much enthusiasm for mergers and buyouts either as buyer or seller.
Indeed, it’s Alaska’s relatively nimble profile that some say has kept the airline from succumbing to the excesses that landed so many of its larger competitors, including Delta, in bankruptcy court.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
[email protected]



http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/05/02/v-printerfriendly/1171105/deltas-rising-star-merger-with.html#ixzz0mrsDhVPH "
 
...surpassing longtime Sea-Tac powerhouse United Airlines...

United has been steadily shrinking in SEA for at least 10 years.
 

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