Delta to trim future domestic, int'l capacity

[General Lee]

I know you were excited to go WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI last week. Good for you.

I am a Delta pilot. Haven't been west of the Mississippi since 5/2007. Does that make me a bad guy?

Where did it say he was a bad guy? I just stated he was Excited to go there. Are you trying to be funny? You missed the touch down zone.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[~~~^~~~]

General,

It's safer now that they locked their Mayor up.

 

[General Lee]

Only if you measure your self-worth by the size airplane you fly GL is a very important person

Speaking of WORTH, unfortunately a lot of your (I mean ours now) airplanes I guess aren't going to be worth much, and will be headed off to the boneyard. At least the arbitrators know that.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[General Lee]

I hear the Africa layovers make Flint, Fargo, and Minot on the DC9 look pretty good

Is it true you have armed escorts to and from the hotel is some places and are instructed not to leave the hotel?

When you order food at a diner in those towns, how loud to you have to scream for someone to hear you? (In screaming voice for effect)

"HELLO....ELLO...LO? Anyone Here ere re? Mom om om?"


Bye Bye---General Lee

 

[General Lee]

With sub $2/gallon Jet A, your pounding of Airtran is going to be very expensive to Delta while Airtran will break even or make a decent profit. Airtran, Southwest, and Jetblue can make money with $100 tickets and sub $2/gallon Jet A. I doubt Delta can.

Delta will be a very strong airline going forward if they can get this merger completed without too many complications. They should be focusing on being a global airline and looking for opportunities for higher yields instead of playing market share games with LCCs. That is one battle Delta will not win especially in a slow economy with lower Jet A prices.

Delta has plans to compete, and keep pressure on Airtran. You don't just go off and compete in one sector like Pan Am did. You have to fight on all fronts.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[grinder]

Well out of curiosity I checked the ATL-LOS trip for the 28, the day after Thanksgiving. Oversold by 25! The price if I wanted to buy a last-minute ticket? $3200 NON-refundable, and over $5000 for a refundable ticket!

This is pure marketing genius. Take the junior most personnel make them work the holidays, and let them show off their new customer relations skills with this house of cards. Winning new customers 101..... I never understood why they just don't add extra sections over the holidays or keep the numbers realistic so folks don't get screwed. The flights will sell out, it happens every year. Not too many folks take those $200 vouchers when they have to make it to turkey dinner, especially when they paid a ton in the first place to make it on time.

They you get to hear the stories, "I flew on XXX for Thankgiving and they....I will never fly them again"

I'm driving....

 

[FDJ2]

Well out of curiosity I checked the ATL-LOS trip for the 28, the day after Thanksgiving. Oversold by 25! The price if I wanted to buy a last-minute ticket? $3200 NON-refundable, and over $5000 for a refundable ticket!

quote]


Why not be more realistic. I do not think there are too many fares being sold this late for the day after thanksgiving. Why not try the middle of Jan. and see what you come up with. I will save you some time, 1500 roundtrip. Don't think too many people are saying at the last minute, hey lets fly to LOS.

For January 15th Delta has sold 20 first/business class seats and 97 coach seats to LOS. If you were to buy those round trip tickets today, for your trip in January, a business ticket is $8,887 and a coach seat is $1,466. Based on those rates and the seats already sold, the revenue for that flight is $320,000 a month and a half prior to the departure date.

Based on 24 hours of flight time for the round trip ticket, that $13,333/hr of revenue on that trip as of today. I'm not sure how many last minute passengers you'd have to pick up to break even, but you'd have a month and a half to get them.



Disclamer: I'm sure not everyone is paying those rates, but I'm equally sure that DAL will sell a few more tickets in the next month and a half.

 

[qxdash8]

I hear the Africa layovers make Flint, Fargo, and Minot on the DC9 look pretty good

Is it true you have armed escorts to and from the hotel is some places and are instructed not to leave the hotel?

From the LOS layover briefing sheet: IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT CREW MEMBERS DO NOT LEAVE THE HOTEL. I would consider that advisory not an instruction

This is why many of the new Africa trips will be turns from the relative safety of Sal Island.

 

[jmreii]

With sub $2/gallon Jet A, your pounding of Airtran is going to be very expensive to Delta while Airtran will break even or make a decent profit. Airtran, Southwest, and Jetblue can make money with $100 tickets and sub $2/gallon Jet A. I doubt Delta can.

Delta will be a very strong airline going forward if they can get this merger completed without too many complications. They should be focusing on being a global airline and looking for opportunities for higher yields instead of playing market share games with LCCs. That is one battle Delta will not win especially in a slow economy with lower Jet A prices.

Market share games in this bad economy is not a good idea. There are very few winners, and I know of one LCC that has never lost a fight that someone else started. So I ask you are feeling lucky, if you are , go ahead and make my day.

 

[crj567]

Market share games in this bad economy is not a good idea. There are very few winners, and I know of one LCC that has never lost a fight that someone else started. So I ask you are feeling lucky, if you are , go ahead and make my day.

My point exactly-

Gen Lee thinks DAL is bulletproof.... no company has ever outlived its incompetence.....We will see how wrong DAL is when they make Airtran eat it and SWA comes in and gives them the super-DDT!

Not a smart strategy, but neither is dumping all the feed and investing heavily is Africa-for God's sake!!! That entire continent has never made any airline any money with the exception of Egypt and S. Africa!

-Just wait, Gen-a couple of years, and I will get a really sweet "told-you-so!"