Good SONG advertising

[General Lee]

Delta Air Lines President & COO Frederick Reid and Song President John N. Selvaggio to Ring the Opening Bell(TM) at The New York Stock Exchange
Wednesday August 20, 9:30 am ET
Delta Air Lines to Celebrate the Launch of its Newest Air Service, Song, Into all Three Major New York Area Airports


NEW YORK, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL - News) President & COO Frederick Reid and Song, Delta's new low-fare subsidiary, President, John N. Selvaggio, will jointly ring The Opening Bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, August 20 at 9:30 a.m. Reid and Selvaggio are visiting the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of Song's introducing service to all three major New York metropolitan area airports.
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"Delta has had a long relationship with the New York Stock Exchange, having traded on the Exchange for 45 years, a milestone we celebrated last year," said Reid. "Today we are proud to celebrate another milestone, Song's serving all three major New York area airports; Song is the only low-fare service to do so."

Following the ringing of The Opening Bell, Song will conduct a demonstration of their in-flight entertainment system, which will be introduced throughout Song's Boeing 757 fleet beginning in October. Song is partnering with Matsushista Avionics Systems and EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH - News) and its DISH Network(TM) satellite TV service to provide a complement of on-board amenities, which when fully implemented, will include: personal video monitors at every seat; 24 channels of all-digital, satellite broadcast programming; digitally-streamed MP3 programming; pay-per- view on-demand video programming; multi-player interactive games that allow play between passengers; and interactive iXplor moving map program with zoom capabilities and points of interest information and connecting gate information broadcast directly to personal in-seat video monitors.

"We are very excited to be flying out of all three major New York area airports, making Song the convenient choice for low-fare, high quality air travel," said Selvaggio. "Beginning in October, we will offer our customers the most advanced in-flight entertainment technology available, giving them greater choices on board that will enrich their travel experience and fit their individual and ever changing needs."

Song is an innovative low-fare service, providing non-stop flights between the Northeast and key Florida leisure destinations, plus Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Juan. Song, which now services all three major New York metropolitan area airports -- JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia, will eventually offer more than 142 daily flights on 36 Boeing 757 aircraft. All Song flights are operated by Delta Air Lines.

Delta Air Lines, the world's second largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offers 5,813 flights each day to 447 destinations in 81 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Express, Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection and Delta's worldwide partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services.






Man alive, these guys got to ring the opening bell (I wonder how much that cost?). You have to admit that is good advertising, and a lot of the stuff in this advertisement disputes some of what Neelman is saying, about when the inflight entertainment system is due etc... (although, I would like to see it happen on time.......) We shall see, again.....Song is putting up a good fight to Jetblue, and when all 37 757's are put in place, we shall see.

And FINS,

The CASM on the chart that Fred Reid showed at that ATL meeting supposedly included ASA/Comair--which in reality doesn't tell the whole truth. Apparently our CASM on mainline was a lot lower than AA's and UAL's, and they had huge paycuts. The SONG CASM was 7.0--which was very close to Southwest. (Jetblue's was a great 6.1) We all know that the RJ's are in reality very inefficient, and those numbers were thrown into that chart. I am not saying we do not need to give up any pay, and our debt is a problem. But, what we need is a good plan, not major pay cuts only for the pilots. Of course, I wasn't at the meeting, and I read most of this off of the Dalpa board--and it sure is interesting.


Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[Heavy Set]

You have to admit - serving all 3 NYC airports is pretty convenient... Once the TV/entertainment kinks are worked out in all of the seats, the product will be pretty competitive - and you can also get Delta points for free flights to Europe or Hawaii - not bad.... It is nice to see that Delta has a plan - unlike UAL or AA beyond cost-cutting...

 

[JayDub]

We all know that the RJ's are in reality very inefficient, and those numbers were thrown into that chart. I am not saying we do not need to give up any pay, and our debt is a problem. But, what we need is a good plan, not major pay cuts only for the pilots. Of course, I wasn't at the meeting, and I read most of this off of the Dalpa board--and it sure is interesting.


Bye Bye--General Lee

General,

Probably one of the better posts I've ever seen you make. However, I don't want to see any pilot take a pay cut, much less when their mgmt. is taking "retention bonuses".

Your statement about 50 seaters is correct. In fact one of our mgmt. folks did extensive research of this while getting his Masters. Seems you can't make much money in anything less than 100 seats. A perfect example is the Fokker 70. USAir and Horizon made beau coup bucks with those machines despite the fact they weren't the cheapest critters on the block. Seems to me maybe DALPA and the company might look into the feasibility of getting some 100 seaters to develop their markets, instead of the fifties.

Two other statements I'd disagree with though; I thought Delta said their TVs wouldn't be ready by October 1, not Neeleman. Also, operations into EWR and LGA aren't necessarily that advantageous. Both those airports have miserable on-time performance... especially LGA. Most airlines I know of add at least 1/2 hour to their block time for most operations out of there. That just adds to the inefficiency of your aircraft, which has been debated ad nauseum previously.

It's good to see some sporting competition though. The New York area, especially, deserves it. It's a great town and the people there deserve some reasonable fares.

Respectfully,


JayDub

 

[SSDD]

General,

You seem to be a great cheerleader for you airline, and I applaud your committment. From the outside looking in, it seems to me that two ingredients are missing from DL's formula: Pilot utilization, and customer service.

It appears that until your pilots start flying around 85-90 hrs. per month, and your CSA's and F/A's learn to smile every once in a while, its going to be...well...SSDD.

Your thoughts?

 

[General Lee]

SSDD,

You are probably correct about getting the productivity up, but our contract does state that when one pilot is furloughed, the max is 75 hours--and that is to protect ourselves from frivilous furloughs. We are down to 7500 or so pilots from 10,000 pre-9-11, and we are bringing back some 737-200's from the desert after they get some maintenence checks done. Also, with the Gatt rate projected to rise significantly after Sept 1st---we already supposedly have 161 Capts giving early reitirement notices for Sept 1st, and a lot of them are supposedly in the lower to mid 50's in age. There are still 11 days left (I think...) in this month, and more are expected to announce it. (The difference supposedly for a 25 year guy to retire on Sept 1st vs Nov 1st is close to $100,000 in their lump sum). Also, when Song gets fully up and running, you will see the daily utilization rates increase (from 11.2 to 13.4 hrs daily I think?)---which will increase the utilization of the pilots, which will cause us to fly more. As far as the flight attendants, the cute and spunky ones have been furloughed, and what is left? You got it---old and grumpy. I think Delta should offer an early retirement package to them to get them out of the way---then they can hire back the cheaper and friendlier ones. And, I do try to be a cheerleader for my airline, the alternative would be crying all day in the closet.

Jaydub,

Yes, I think it will be interesting watching the competition between the two airlines. I do, however, think service to all three major NYC airports is important---it gives flexibilty to the consumers. The tickets will probably all be the same price, but those who live in Manhattan might want to drive closer or take a cab to LGA for convienence. Those pax in NJ do not want to drive to JFK. I know LGA can be a nightmare---but so can JFK at around 530pm. EWR loves to get jammed too, and the air tour of NJ when coming in from the South and landing south can be ridiculous. But, it is all about what pax want. Also, you may be correct about who said what about the entertainment systems at Song---I thought I saw Neeleman say that on Fox Business news. I honestly don't know when it will all be ready, and I am sure Delta and Song management want it to be soon. Maybe there is a problem with the suppliers...?? I don't know. But, it sounds like a good package, and passengers who try it might want to come back again. We shall see. I also agree with you about 100 seaters--and apparently they are going to narrow it down to two soon--but with a big future order by the Star Alliance soon, they might want to hurry it up. I think our old 737-200's want to retire to somewhere warm soon.....

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[TUPAK]

HE SAID SHE SAID

Originally posted by General Lee
They have been having a problem with the TVs that go in each seat, and apparently they have delayed the installment until early next year (from the original OCT date). I am sure somebody was fired over that, but they are trying to work it out. .....

General,

I believe that you said the TVs would not be ready in one of your earlier posts. Maybe they worked it out if Selvaggio is stating OCT again. Maybe the "the most advanced in-flight entertainment technology" is without the TVs and they will be installed later. Maybe.....

TUPAK

 

[General Lee]

Tupak,

I only repeat what I read. I really have NO IDEA when these systems will be put in. I am not an expert in that field, and I have said that there COULD BE some problem with the supplier etc. But, it will be a great system once it is installed, though.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[cl65@350]

General...

in your opinion and what you have heard flying the line...what are the front runners for DAL in the 100 seat arena? i would think it would have to be boeing or airbus due to advantageous delivery sked?

 

[General Lee]

CL65,

I honestly don't know--but I was told by a chief pilot that "they are narrowing it down to two." I can give you my best guess, though. We have heard a lot about "common cockpits" and "1 common type rating" at Delta. I think that means they would like to get all of the airplanes to have the same essential cockpits to help shorten training cycles. So, I could guess they might order some 737-600s, since that cockpit is the same as the 738, and close to the 767-400 and 777. I also heard that the 717 might be in the cards, but they wanted it to have the range from" CVG to SEA." Why? I have no idea. It would have to be at a great price. And, they could pull a "Jetblue" and buy something totally new in the fleet, like the A318. I know that Fred Reid, our Pres, used to work at Lufthansa, and he supposedly brought the "new" airbuses to Lufthansa (Not the A300's or A310s---but the A320's and A340's etc....). So, he knows the people at Airbus and could call on them for a deal. And then there is the Emb-190. I have heard this will be a nice plane and probably a little cheaper than the others. With the financial strain the Majors are going through right now, cost might be the most important thing. But, since Jetblue ordered the large order, it might be awhile until we could get some. And then there is the 90 seat CR9. I highly doubt Dalpa will allow that unless our guys exclusively fly them, and I think the pax might like the room in an A318 better, or a 736 for that matter.

Well, I hope that helped. As you can see, I really have no idea. I personally would like the A318 or 736. The A318 cockpit is really nice and comfy---and the 736 has the same cockpit I used to fly a couple years ago.(When I was on the 738) It will be interesting.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[flewa72]

As far as the flight attendants, the cute and spunky ones have been furloughed, and what is left? You got it---old and grumpy

You'd be grumpy too if you had to work more hours for the same take-home as well as clean the plane, SELL magazines & food, etc.

Not to mention having the company renege on its promises regarding seniority numbers and so on.

Plus it can't help anyones attitude that DL isn't even allowing furloughed F/As to non-rev home after their last trip.

So much for that whole "Delta family" thing.

 

[General Lee]

Flewa72,

I agree. Management needs to work on that big time. It is too bad they have to do that. And they expect some loyalty from their employees too? Whatever.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[AlbieF15]

I always laughed (ironically...not haha funny) when the AF passed a bunch of dudes in a year group over, slammed others on remotes, etc back in the 93-96 timeframe, then bent over backwards trying to throw money and Quality of life initiatives at the senior captains (like me) in subsequent years groups around 95-00.

We weren't idiots, and we saw how people were treated WHEN THEY DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE. In 95-96, the airlines started hiring again, and the Air Force was (in the words of George Thorogood)..."so nice....Lawwd...they was lovey-dovey".

A bunch of us were taking notes while our bros got their beatings, however, and when given a better deal we moseyed on out without feeling too guilty. We'd seen the true colors when the AF had us by the throat, and when retention was high they didn't mind "culliing the herd", even if it meant letting go of some great warriors who just didn't happen to knock out that master's degree while they were busy being an IP, flight commander, etc.

Beating down your help (like these Delta FAs) is only being penny wise and pound foolish. Tough times ought to be where management steps up to help folks...passes to furloughees, etc (heck...most of the fall/winter of 2001/2002 the planes were empty anyway!). The resentment and lack of teamwork that comes out of such treatment won't go away after the recalls or subsequent pay raises.

Too bad--for most of my life Delta service was famous. They have managed to snuff a lot of the panache and style that were their hallmarks for years...and I certainly don't put all the blame on the folks working the jets.