DL operational reliability a key driver of DL's revenue gains

[WorldTraveler]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/making-uniteds-summer-airline-hell-152832217.html

this article highlights what many have suspected.... that DL's revenue strength is due heavily to its schedule reliability and it is industry leading because no other airline of DL's size is doing what DL is doing and the only airlines that are posting similar numbers are much smaller and have operations that barely touch the delay-prone NE corridor.

"Delta is wowing the industry with its schedule reliability and potent earnings ... Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson said this week that his company is seeing huge share and revenue shifts to Delta because of its service reliability as travelers migrate from other carriers. In the second quarter, Delta tallied 43 days without a flight cancellation in its mainline operation, which excludes its regional carriers. Anderson credited the tight operation to a myriad of investments in technology, planning tools, and schedule assembly. And in the end, there's no substitute for the power and the know-how of the employees, he said on July 15 on a quarterly earnings call."


The success that DL is seeing today is a result of a mgmt team that realized the value of operational reliability, the work of the best people in the business to fix the issues that create delays and cancellations, and a commitment throughout the entire company to do what has to be done to deliver DL's industry leading reliability.

Congrats to everyone at DL for delivering a solid product that is putting solid money in DL's pockets as well as your own.

 

[wcs]

  DL's revenue strength is due heavily to its schedule reliability 

Additionally, DL is likely realizing some cost saving. Although it is difficult to calculate what those savings may be.
The carrier's reliability will produce savings by reducing costs in passenger accommodations, crew reassignments and missed scheduled maintenance opportunities. I'm sure there are non-quantifiable savings(revenue) in passenger satisfaction.
The investments that DL has made in it's schedule and internal structure will continue to pay dividends.

 

[WorldTraveler]

actually, the revenue benefit is very likely quantifiable.

Passengers buy any transportation services first and foremost to get there.

There are plenty of stories of customers who have left UA for DL because of UA's schedule issues; given that DL and UA compete heavily on the east and west coasts, there is a good chance that DL is picking up a lot of additional revenue from UA but DL isn't gaining just because of their superior reliability compared to UA but also compared to other carriers.