USNFDX
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Song Service Expansion Plan
- Thread starter USNFDX
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cforst513 said:
You'll still be able to. Delta plans on expanding Song Service by doubling the number of aircraft offering the Song experience. You can expect to see at least 100 DAL aircraft retro fitted for Song service within 2 years. Eventually all Delta domestic flights over 1750mi will offer Song service.
The fact that DAL plans on transforming a large part of the domestic mainline into Song type service is a large vote of confidence for the product.:beer:
Delta: Customers Can Book Song Flights Until May
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 28, 2005 8:58 a.m.
ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines Inc. (DALR) confirmed it will merge its
low-cost Song unit into its mainline service, with plans to implement
many of Song's characteristics as part of the bankrupt carrier's plan to
transform itself into a discount airline.
In a press release Friday, Delta said Song will continue to fly as a
separate brand and customers will be able to book flights on that
service until May.
The company will upgrade its mainline fleet to match many features
found in Song planes. Delta will convert more than 50 Delta aircraft to
two-class Song service, with all-leather seating and new interiors, and
it will expand personal digital in-flight entertainment to all of its
more than 100 aircraft.
In addition, the company will add 26 first-class seats to Song's
existing fleet of 48 Boeing 757-200 aircraft, in an effort to make the
service more attractive to business travelers.
Delta pans to deploy the Song aircraft on high-demand routes throughout
the Delta network during a transition period, replacing wide-body
aircraft that will be re-deployed from domestic to international
destinations. Starting in the fall of 2006, the company will reconfigure
the Song fleet into the new two-class, long-haul standard and introduce
them to all transcontinental routes.
The company will expand the Song service in the next two years to
include all routes over 1,750 miles.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the plan to appropriate
Song's features into Delta's mainline service reflects the turnaround of
the low-cost unit, which was launched in 2003 at a cost of $65 million.
Song at first appeared to be a distraction amid Delta's financial woes,
but gained traction as it proved a potential blueprint for competing
with lower-cost giants like JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU).
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ATLANTA, Oct. 28, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Delta Air Lines announced today that it will tap the best features of its highly acclaimed Song product to launch a new and unique long-haul domestic Song service for Delta customers. The plan to merge Song into the Delta travel experience includes:
-- Adding 26 first-class seats to Song's existing fleet of 48
Boeing 757-200 aircraft, making the service more attractive
to business travelers and significantly enhancing revenue
opportunities.
-- Converting an additional 50-plus Delta aircraft to two-class
Song service, complete with all-leather seating and new
interiors throughout.
-- Expanding state-of-the-art personal digital in-flight
entertainment to all 100-plus aircraft, with 24 channels of
live television, 10 on-demand video channels, interactive
video games and MP3 programming that allows customers to create
their own play lists from an inventory of more than 1,600 songs.
-- Offering this exclusive Song service initially on all
transcontinental Delta flights beginning fall 2006 and
expanding the service to include all routes over 1,750 miles
over two years.
-- Incorporating Delta's new uniforms, improved snack service
and award-winning SkyMiles(r) program to offer customers the
best value in transcontinental travel.
``As Delta continues its transformation to become a more customer-focused airline, we are incorporating the best of Song into the best of Delta,'' said Gerald Grinstein, Delta's Chief Executive Officer. ``Our new Song service will set the standard in transcontinental travel, making Delta the first choice for customers on these routes.''
Since its inception in April 2003, Song has become a customer favorite. However, Song flying has been limited primarily to leisure markets. ``As part of our restructuring, we have the opportunity to deploy Song aircraft seasonally to more profitable flying -- including into our hubs -- and to further simplify our operations while expanding the great travel experience on Song to more Delta customers,'' according to Jim Whitehurst, Chief Operating Officer for Delta. ``We've learned a lot from Song and have already incorporated many of its positives into Delta. Features like new leather interiors, new uniforms, a simplified fare structure and faster turn times have resulted in 11 consecutive months of year-over-year improvement in customer service ratings at Delta.''
Song will continue to fly as a separate brand and customers will be able to book flights on Song until May 2006. The aircraft will then be scheduled on high-demand routes throughout the Delta network during the transition, replacing wide-body aircraft that will be re-deployed from domestic to international destinations as part of the largest international expansion in Delta's history. Through the end of 2006, Delta will reconfigure the Song fleet into the new two-class, long-haul standard and introduce them on transcontinental routes. In all, more than 100 aircraft will be outfitted for Song service, giving customers access to the largest fleet of video-on-demand aircraft in the U.S.
To maximize the value of Song's success at Delta, Joanne Smith, currently president of Song, has been named vice president of Consumer Marketing for Delta, effective immediately.
``Joanne Smith brings the energy and marketing expertise to our consumer marketing team that we need to continue improving the customer experience on Delta,'' said Paul Matsen, Delta's Chief Marketing Officer. ``Her leadership will ensure the efficiencies; service enhancements and innovations of Song are integrated into Delta's ongoing transformation.''
Delta Air Lines is the world's second-largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offering daily flights to 487 destinations in 87 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, the Delta Connection carriers and its worldwide partners. Delta's marketing alliances allow customers to earn and redeem frequent flier miles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.
-- Adding 26 first-class seats to Song's existing fleet of 48
Boeing 757-200 aircraft, making the service more attractive
to business travelers and significantly enhancing revenue
opportunities.
-- Converting an additional 50-plus Delta aircraft to two-class
Song service, complete with all-leather seating and new
interiors throughout.
-- Expanding state-of-the-art personal digital in-flight
entertainment to all 100-plus aircraft, with 24 channels of
live television, 10 on-demand video channels, interactive
video games and MP3 programming that allows customers to create
their own play lists from an inventory of more than 1,600 songs.
-- Offering this exclusive Song service initially on all
transcontinental Delta flights beginning fall 2006 and
expanding the service to include all routes over 1,750 miles
over two years.
-- Incorporating Delta's new uniforms, improved snack service
and award-winning SkyMiles(r) program to offer customers the
best value in transcontinental travel.
``As Delta continues its transformation to become a more customer-focused airline, we are incorporating the best of Song into the best of Delta,'' said Gerald Grinstein, Delta's Chief Executive Officer. ``Our new Song service will set the standard in transcontinental travel, making Delta the first choice for customers on these routes.''
Since its inception in April 2003, Song has become a customer favorite. However, Song flying has been limited primarily to leisure markets. ``As part of our restructuring, we have the opportunity to deploy Song aircraft seasonally to more profitable flying -- including into our hubs -- and to further simplify our operations while expanding the great travel experience on Song to more Delta customers,'' according to Jim Whitehurst, Chief Operating Officer for Delta. ``We've learned a lot from Song and have already incorporated many of its positives into Delta. Features like new leather interiors, new uniforms, a simplified fare structure and faster turn times have resulted in 11 consecutive months of year-over-year improvement in customer service ratings at Delta.''
Song will continue to fly as a separate brand and customers will be able to book flights on Song until May 2006. The aircraft will then be scheduled on high-demand routes throughout the Delta network during the transition, replacing wide-body aircraft that will be re-deployed from domestic to international destinations as part of the largest international expansion in Delta's history. Through the end of 2006, Delta will reconfigure the Song fleet into the new two-class, long-haul standard and introduce them on transcontinental routes. In all, more than 100 aircraft will be outfitted for Song service, giving customers access to the largest fleet of video-on-demand aircraft in the U.S.
To maximize the value of Song's success at Delta, Joanne Smith, currently president of Song, has been named vice president of Consumer Marketing for Delta, effective immediately.
``Joanne Smith brings the energy and marketing expertise to our consumer marketing team that we need to continue improving the customer experience on Delta,'' said Paul Matsen, Delta's Chief Marketing Officer. ``Her leadership will ensure the efficiencies; service enhancements and innovations of Song are integrated into Delta's ongoing transformation.''
Delta Air Lines is the world's second-largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offering daily flights to 487 destinations in 87 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, the Delta Connection carriers and its worldwide partners. Delta's marketing alliances allow customers to earn and redeem frequent flier miles on more than 14,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.
regionaltard
seat lock
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180ToTheMarker
12 months of October
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FDJ2 said:
Well maybe..... The funds to complete a makeover like that are enormous. DAL being in bankruptcy will have to get permission from the judge to spend and find that capital. ALthough Song financials were buried within DAL filings, various financial firms dug through the papers and surmized that Song was loosing a lot of money. And the integration of the Song talent (FA's') with the older DAL FAs won't be pretty.
180ToTheMarker said:
I think what you will see is mainline aircraft reconfigured for Song service and the Song aircraft having first class seats added. Overall, it is an upgrade in mainline service. For quite some time, many of us have wondered why Delta didn't transform itself into Song, it's a far better product. Well I guess the experiment is over and Song has proved itself. Within 2 years Delta will have over 100 mainline aircraft configured for Song service, eventually all Domestic flights over 1750mi will be flown by Song configured aircraft.
FL717
As the World Turns
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- Posts
- 472
Song is NOT expanding... they are going away...
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. will close down its low-cost carrier Song, the bankrupt airline said on Friday, as it focuses on its money-losing core operations.
The decision, a victory for discount rival JetBlue Airways Corp., was the latest setback for Delta, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, whose previous management had hoped Song could help it compete against discount carriers like JetBlue despite higher costs.
"Delta was never willing to admit that they couldn't compete with JetBlue's costs with Song, even though they were not reducing their pilot pay," said Standard & Poor's analyst Jim Corridore. "Clearly they have finally admitted it."
Shares in JetBlue, whose low-cost service with amenities like leather seats and satellite television was widely viewed as a model for Song and which flew many of the same routes, soared as much as 10 percent.
Delta said Song would stop operating as a separate unit in May 2006, about three years after it started flying.
The shift is the latest sign of Delta's willingness to break with its past as it seeks to reorganize under bankruptcy protection and stem billions of dollars in losses from high fuel costs and cutthroat competition.
It also could put pressure on No. 2 U.S. carrier United Airlines, which is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection early next year, to close down its own low-cost unit Ted.
"Operating two products under the same name has never worked," said Ray Neidl, an analyst with Calyon Securities. "They've learned a lot from operating a low-cost product and now in bankruptcy they can incorporate that into their mainline product."
Song, whose planes sport a distinctive lime green and white paint job, struggled to compete with low-cost carriers like JetBlue in part because the Delta unit's Boeing 757 planes were too large, Neidl said.
"It didn't give them the flexibility of JetBlue," he said.
JetBlue shares were up $1.64, or 9.5 percent, at $18.93 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq, outperforming the Amex Airline index , which was 3.4 percent higher.
Song has been one of JetBlue's main competitors on flights between New York and Florida, as well as on other routes.
Song's president, Joanne Smith, was named vice president of consumer marketing for Delta as a whole.
After May 2006, the narrow-body jets that now fly with the Song colors will be redeployed to other Delta routes -- mostly transcontinental ones -- to replace wide-body planes the airline is shifting to international routes, Delta said.
Over time, Delta said it plans to expand some of the special features that Song planes offered customers, like video-on-demand service, to another 100 planes.
While moving toward a low-cost model and adopting several of Song's features, Delta's main fleet will offer two classes of service, a shift from Song aircraft which offered a single economy class.
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. will close down its low-cost carrier Song, the bankrupt airline said on Friday, as it focuses on its money-losing core operations.
The decision, a victory for discount rival JetBlue Airways Corp., was the latest setback for Delta, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, whose previous management had hoped Song could help it compete against discount carriers like JetBlue despite higher costs.
"Delta was never willing to admit that they couldn't compete with JetBlue's costs with Song, even though they were not reducing their pilot pay," said Standard & Poor's analyst Jim Corridore. "Clearly they have finally admitted it."
Shares in JetBlue, whose low-cost service with amenities like leather seats and satellite television was widely viewed as a model for Song and which flew many of the same routes, soared as much as 10 percent.
Delta said Song would stop operating as a separate unit in May 2006, about three years after it started flying.
The shift is the latest sign of Delta's willingness to break with its past as it seeks to reorganize under bankruptcy protection and stem billions of dollars in losses from high fuel costs and cutthroat competition.
It also could put pressure on No. 2 U.S. carrier United Airlines, which is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection early next year, to close down its own low-cost unit Ted.
"Operating two products under the same name has never worked," said Ray Neidl, an analyst with Calyon Securities. "They've learned a lot from operating a low-cost product and now in bankruptcy they can incorporate that into their mainline product."
Song, whose planes sport a distinctive lime green and white paint job, struggled to compete with low-cost carriers like JetBlue in part because the Delta unit's Boeing 757 planes were too large, Neidl said.
"It didn't give them the flexibility of JetBlue," he said.
JetBlue shares were up $1.64, or 9.5 percent, at $18.93 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq, outperforming the Amex Airline index , which was 3.4 percent higher.
Song has been one of JetBlue's main competitors on flights between New York and Florida, as well as on other routes.
Song's president, Joanne Smith, was named vice president of consumer marketing for Delta as a whole.
After May 2006, the narrow-body jets that now fly with the Song colors will be redeployed to other Delta routes -- mostly transcontinental ones -- to replace wide-body planes the airline is shifting to international routes, Delta said.
Over time, Delta said it plans to expand some of the special features that Song planes offered customers, like video-on-demand service, to another 100 planes.
While moving toward a low-cost model and adopting several of Song's features, Delta's main fleet will offer two classes of service, a shift from Song aircraft which offered a single economy class.
News Flash...Song does work. What they are doing is working on turning more and more of the doemestic travel into a "song product" which customers are loving. Pax don't seem to mind five hour hold times if they have a TV infront of them along with some good eats.
Delta will tap the best features of its highly acclaimed Song product to launch a new, long-haul domestic Song service for Delta customers. The plan to merge Song into the Delta travel experience includes adding 26 first class seats to Song's existing fleet of 48 Boeing 757-200 aircraft, making the service more attractive to business travelers and significantly enhancing revenue opportunities.
Delta will convert 50 additional aircraft to two-class Song service, complete with all-leather seating and new interiors throughout. The plan also includes expanding state-of-the-art personal digital in-flight entertainment to all 100-plus aircraft, with 24 channels of live television, 10 on-demand video channels, interactive video games and MP3 programming that allows customers to create their own play lists from an inventory of more than 1,600 songs.
This exclusive Song service will be offered initially on all transcontinental Delta flights, beginning next fall. During a two-year period, Delta will expand the service to include all routes longer than 1,750 miles.
Delta's new uniforms, improved snack service and award-winning SkyMiles program will become a part of the new service.
"As Delta continues its transformation to become a more customer-focused airline, we are incorporating the best of Song into the best of Delta," said CEO Jerry Grinstein. "Our new Song service will set the standard in transcontinental travel, making Delta the first choice for customers on these routes."
Delta will tap the best features of its highly acclaimed Song product to launch a new, long-haul domestic Song service for Delta customers. The plan to merge Song into the Delta travel experience includes adding 26 first class seats to Song's existing fleet of 48 Boeing 757-200 aircraft, making the service more attractive to business travelers and significantly enhancing revenue opportunities.
Delta will convert 50 additional aircraft to two-class Song service, complete with all-leather seating and new interiors throughout. The plan also includes expanding state-of-the-art personal digital in-flight entertainment to all 100-plus aircraft, with 24 channels of live television, 10 on-demand video channels, interactive video games and MP3 programming that allows customers to create their own play lists from an inventory of more than 1,600 songs.
This exclusive Song service will be offered initially on all transcontinental Delta flights, beginning next fall. During a two-year period, Delta will expand the service to include all routes longer than 1,750 miles.
Delta's new uniforms, improved snack service and award-winning SkyMiles program will become a part of the new service.
"As Delta continues its transformation to become a more customer-focused airline, we are incorporating the best of Song into the best of Delta," said CEO Jerry Grinstein. "Our new Song service will set the standard in transcontinental travel, making Delta the first choice for customers on these routes."
C
ChperpltII
I think it's funny (sad really) how reporters take the same news story and report it in completely different ways.
It's obvious that Song is not going away. The advent of the company within the company may be heading south, but Song will continue to live.
I loved to fly on Song when I was able to travel for free, and now that I'm buying tickets again, I still fly on Song. All in all a very enjoyable flying experience.
It's obvious that Song is not going away. The advent of the company within the company may be heading south, but Song will continue to live.
I loved to fly on Song when I was able to travel for free, and now that I'm buying tickets again, I still fly on Song. All in all a very enjoyable flying experience.
jester757 said:
Bingo!!!!! Delta obviously has been experimenting with the Song product and they like the results. The conversion of 50 more aircraft for Song service is a vote of confidence in the product. The planned expansion of Song within the mainline with over 100 757s is a major commitment to the product. I'm glad to see that DAL wants to improve the DAL brand with Song service instead of creating a competing brand.
One of the weaknesses of the Song product has been the lack of 1st class seating for higher yield business passengers. Adding 1st class service is a smart move and only improves the product.
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8vATE said:
There will be domestic 'shrinkage' (and I don't like that word). I just don't see DL giving up much ground to jetBlue in direct compete markets, that's all.
I read the General's posts pretty regularly. I know anybody on this board who agrees with mgmt is drinking kool-aid
but to be honest, he's usually not too far off from the truth of what's going on. DL management makes good decisions and some bad ones, that much is obvious. And you can buy into the great DL 'transformation plan' or you can sluff it off but the intent of it is to restore the company to profitability. We don't show up at the GO each morning, grab a cup of coffee and a bagel and say 'how can we better screw over the pilots today'. We only do that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. :laugh:
michael707767
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