http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=2777
Taking a page from its past, Delta embarks on new international expansion
Wednesday October 19, 2005
Fourteen years ago, Delta Air Lines made a bad bet on international expansion during a period of heavy losses.Yesterday it raised the ante. In what it described as "the largest international expansion in its history," the bankrupt carrier said it will launch nonstop widebody service from its hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and base at New York JFK to 11 cities in Europe and the Middle East.
The new wave of flights will begin March 27 between Atlanta and Tel Aviv and continue through June 6 when the carrier launches service to Venice. In between, service will be inaugurated between ATL and Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Nice and Athens and between JFK and Budapest, Dublin/Shannon, Manchester and Kiev. The JFK-Kiev service is subject to government approval and the launch date will be announced.
"Next summer's increase in international flying is an integral part of our customer-focused transformation plan," CEO Gerald Grinstein said. "Since January, we have announced our intentions to serve more than 50 new international markets, making Delta the fastest-growing US carrier to Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Latin America." By next summer it will serve 66 international markets in 40 countries, making Hartsfield-Jackson the third-largest international hub in North America.
This is not the first time Delta has sought to ease its pain at home with an international fling. In November 1991, fresh off a company record (at the time) loss of $343 million, it acquired substantially all of Pan American World Airways' transatlantic route authorities, with the exception of its London Heathrow services that had been sold to United Airlines, as well as Pan Am's Frankfurt hub and beyond rights to nine cities for $416 million. Overnight it became--as it claims it again is becoming--"the largest transatlantic airline," inaugurating service to 24 cities in 19 countries, the majority of them formerly served by Pan Am.
Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned. Delta lost more than $1.5 billion over the next three years, much of it on its newly acquired services. The Frankfurt base was closed, cities were dropped and by the end of the decade the carrier no longer laid claim to the title of world's largest transatlantic airline.
On Tuesday, Delta said it also plans to update the interiors of its entire international fleet, enhancing its BusinessElite product and introducing an improved domestic coach cabin. To support the new expansion, it may ask its pilots union to permit it to bring back some retired pilots to address staffing shortages, the Associated Press reported.
by Brian Straus and Perry Flint
