DAL Dec 3rd Class Aircraft Assignments...

[Sedona16]

General,

Open skies may be a reality in 2010... this means a drastic increase in INTL competition. Specifically, LHR may be the target of many other "carriers"... how will this affect DL and the other legacies with an increase of International/domestic competition?

I'll take a stab at this. Its about the SLOTS.....landing slots, takeoff slots, parking slots/gates. The good thing about international is that every Tom, Dick and Harry cant just decide to start flying to every destination they decide would make money. International is a much harder gig to bust into. Not impossible but there are many more barriers to entry. CAL just paid over one hundred millon for a couple landing slots at Heathro just to give you an idea on the investment required to get to some of the "hot spots".

 

[instructordude]

I'll take a stab at this. Its about the SLOTS.....landing slots, takeoff slots, parking slots/gates. The good thing about international is that every Tom, Dick and Harry cant just decide to start flying to every destination they decide would make money. International is a much harder gig to bust into. Not impossible but there are many more barriers to entry. CAL just paid over one hundred millon for a couple landing slots at Heathro just to give you an idea on the investment required to get to some of the "hot spots".

Very well put Sedona as usual.

 

[bleagle]

Very well put Sedona as usual.

Won't Open skies make it easier to "bust into" the LHR gig? How will this impact the legacy carrier that currently has to increase International business to be profitable? Not only will this policy allow more international competition, it will increase domestic competition. The policy will be reviewed again in 2010...

 

[instructordude]

Won't Open skies make it easier to "bust into" the LHR gig? How will this impact the legacy carrier that currently has to increase International business to be profitable? Not only will this policy allow more international competition, it will increase domestic competition. The policy will be reviewed again in 2010...

I don't know dude. I just fly and land this sh!t.

 

[General Lee]

General,

Open skies may be a reality in 2010... this means a drastic increase in INTL competition. Specifically, LHR may be the target of many other "carriers"... how will this affect DL and the other legacies with an increase of International/domestic competition?

Sedona16 has it right, it is all about getting the slots and the gates. Many European airlines have plenty of LHR slots and sometimes they use smaller planes to fly to their own national cities. AirFrance and KLM fly smaller planes (A318s to CDG and 737s to AMS) from LHR, and had enough slots to "lend" DL and NWA, without really affecting their own schedules. Both Air France and KLM (owned by Air France) make a lot of money off of DL and NWA, and they were only happy to lend us some slots. CAL doesn't have any "close" friends that fly into LHR, so they had to spend some coin to buy the slots, which I believe were slots from GB or BMED that were going unused after one of them was bought by Easyjet.(they didn't think the 4 slots were worth it, so they were not part of the deal).

As of right now, we have 3 slots (take off and landing--2 to JFK and 1 to ATL), NWA has 2 or 3, and CAL has 4 (2 to EWR and 2 to IAH). I believe all of these airlines will still continue to go to LGW still, since those slots are worth something too. LHR is the closest "big airport" to downtown (London City airport could not handle any widebodies etc or even narrowbodies bigger than a BAE146), and most business people like that.

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[~~~^~~~]

I am curious where the 35 RJ's will come from. DAL owns 40 of ASA's 50's and a bunch of CMR's.

I think there were already plans announced to pull some of the E135's. Someone handy with the Bankruptcy filing could tell you if Mesa, Freedom and Chautaqua's contracts are voidable.

My gut feeling is the ASA and Comair aircraft are safe. ASA's are protected (somewhat) by the SkyWest deal which superceeded the bankruptcy and Delta used the bankruptcy to negotiate lease rates making the DL "owned" aircraft the cheapest RJ's around. Anything with less than 50 seats will probably be re-configured, or parked. ASA did have a couple of those. Sorry that I do not have solid numbers, this is just what I'm hearing from those who should know.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

It is something that I have been looking in to, but to date no one really wants to say where the RJ's are coming from.
Fin, I do agree that DAL does plan to phase out some DCI carriers, but I am not sure if they can void any contracts yet. I know that a few are becoming amenable this year or next. They are not ASA, SKW and CMR.

 

[~~~^~~~]

ACL:

Probably because the uncertainty is thought of as a competitive advantage.

On the Delta topic, November's data suggests Delta's plan is working - although the fuel is effecting results. Schoolhouse rumors are a few classes of 35, twice a month, early in the year.

Delta's cash position, solid growth strategy and rationalization of its domestic capacity as well as future oil trends all seem to counter all the doom and gloom in the headlines lately.

 

[flywithruss]

The CHQ contract was affirmed in bankruptcy, though amended to remove the EMB-135s (15 aircraft) from Delta service. The remaining CHQ aircraft (22 EMB-145s) are under long-term contract with no known plans to reduce or eliminate. The Shuttle America DCI service will remain constant at 16 airframes, although the EMB-170s will be traded out for EMB-175s.

 

[bleagle]

Sedona16 has it right, it is all about getting the slots and the gates. Bye Bye--General Lee

Open skies will require that some of these slots be MADE AVAILABLE to other carriers. So, if OPEN SKIES allows others to get those coveted slots as well as encourage foreign carrier ops domestically in the good ole US of A, how will this affect the legacies?