Delta's Counter Us Airways Announcement

Heinrich, thats mainline flights. 15 years ago Piedmont had about 30 mainline and Usair had about 17 mainline flights a day now US Airways has about 5 MAINLINE flights a day.

What IM saying is that after the PI/US merger Delta went for the heart of the ole Piedmont system. Just like a cancer eating away at our core markets.

I wish we had the boardings for these cities US/PI -vs- DL from 1985 to 1995.

You check it out and you'll see what I mean.
 
deltawatch said:
Wake up ... my point has very little to do with FLL. Delta has slowly taken 1/2 of US Airway's passengers in ORF, RIC, GSO, RDU, CHS, ROA, AVL, SDF, CRW etc. The heart of the system. In GSO Delta flies non-stop to MCO, FLL, LGA, BOS, ATL (about 10 md-80's), CVG, DFW. We fly 30 seaters to PIT and BWI. Mostly 37 seaters to CLT and stinky RJ's to LGA and BOS. A couple of 37's and a couple of rj's to PHL???? US Airways only has about 4-5 mainline flights a day out of GSO.

My point is when U made it's move in FLL you see were Delta went to protect it's self!!!!!! GSO RIC ORF CHS RDU!!!!!!!
[post="173336"][/post]​


I looked and counted 8 mainline flts, 5 to CLT and 3 to PHL. The rest are ERJs to DCA, PIT, 3 to CLT, LGA. There aren't any DH8's except perhaps on Saturday. They do have the J41's to BWI and I think one to PIT. You are talking about DL protecting itself, it's using the same equipment just to different cities. The new FLL flights on Chautauqua are most likely on the 37 seat ERJs. US doesn't have those, at least these stinky RJ's hold 50. I didn't check October but wasn't there an announcement of upgrading some flights to mainline in citites like GSO? You can rant and rave but at least check the timetables before making assumptions. And like others have said, if the whole FLL thing comes to pass, who is to say US won't add a bunch of flights to FLL from outlying cities.
 
Mainline flights in RIC ORF GSO bounce back and forth from month to month between 5 and 8. Before Delta moved into these cities there were 25-45 mainline flights a day. Delta runs 10 MD-80's a day between GSO and ATL. I think it's interesting that when U announced it’s hub in FLL Delta's first move was in ORF CHS RIC RDU GSO. I think that speaks volumes about the markets and Deltas strategy.
 
The timing is purley coincidental, because Delta has been working on this for a few months now. With the number of places they can fly RJs from Orlando just about maxed up, they moved down to see what they can from Lauderdale.
 
Mark,
I don't think you can deny that Delta has out-hubbed US ATL for CLT and CVG for PIT and has used RJs to pick apart anything of value from US' route system. While ATL is arguably a far better place to hub, CVG and PIT could have gone to either carrier (or both). The key clearly was in the RJs; while US employees were convinced they were things of evil, DL accumulated a massive fleet of them that can pick off just about anybody's hub. As for the "DL has had their FLL expansion planned for months", US' expansion at FLL has been publicly discussed for months on this and other boards for months as well. And you'll recall that DL did announce new MCO markets this past week in addition to FLL markets - proof that there are still opportunities to siphon off point to point market from just about any city.
 
How confusing is it going to be for the passengers on DL connection, Chautauqua will be providing the new service out of FLL and they wear OUR UNIFORMS! Can't we make Chautauqua find their own uniform instead of wearing OURS for every major that they do!
 
BMIBABYgirl737 said:
How confusing is it going to be for the passengers on DL connection, Chautauqua will be providing the new service out of FLL and they wear OUR UNIFORMS! Can't we make Chautauqua find their own uniform instead of wearing OURS for every major that they do!
[post="173984"][/post]​

Oh boy, is that ever a sore topic with the AWA FA's. The Mesa people wear our uniforms and we get negative comments from our supervisors for things that happen at the airport that we swear we did not do. Such things as cutting in front of food lines, being rude to travellers and generally being uncouth. The Mesa folks wear our uniforms, except for the wings, and the avaerage customer sees America West. They don't meet our luggage regulations, wear unacceptable footwear and their hair will be a mess. But when such complaints come in from he terminal, as opposed to the plane, we were getting blamed.

Our management, with help from AFA, finally discovered the problem and agreed it wasn't us. I know from time-to-time the AWA FA's have been looked at as being at the bottom of the FA food chain, but trust me Mesa is much further down the food chain.

We have had Mesa FA's riding as SA3P's on us when they were United's Mesa employees. We have had them do rude thing to passengers in our cabins, like make the pax take the middle seat with the excuse being I am an FA and I need that aisle seat in case of an emergency.

Just so I don't paint with too broad a brush, there are some professional Mesa FA's. Maybe 1/3rd of their workforce. The others belong at Burger King or $0.99 stores.

I think it is fair to say we have issues with them. :)
 
WorldTraveler said:
Mark,
I don't think you can deny that Delta has out-hubbed US ATL for CLT and CVG for PIT and has used RJs to pick apart anything of value from US' route system. While ATL is arguably a far better place to hub, CVG and PIT could have gone to either carrier (or both). The key clearly was in the RJs; while US employees were convinced they were things of evil, DL accumulated a massive fleet of them that can pick off just about anybody's hub. As for the "DL has had their FLL expansion planned for months", US' expansion at FLL has been publicly discussed for months on this and other boards for months as well. And you'll recall that DL did announce new MCO markets this past week in addition to FLL markets - proof that there are still opportunities to siphon off point to point market from just about any city.
[post="173946"][/post]​

DL's expansion at FLL had been in the works for well over a year. DL started the first phase of FLL expansion last year with Song adding new routes to LAX/LAS (and replacing DLX to JFK,BDL,BOS,etc). DL also started the RJ expansion with FLL-RDU and FLL-BNA.

This new group of RJ flights is phase two of the FLL expansion.
 
WorldTraveler said:
And you'll recall that DL did announce new MCO markets this past week in addition to FLL markets - proof that there are still opportunities to siphon off point to point market from just about any city.
[post="173946"][/post]​

The MCO markets are about where Delta's new MCO destinations are stopping. They will be announcing one or two more - AVL and GPT - and that is about it. This has been planned for a while. Delta is already the largest carrier at FLL and already operates a focus city at the airport. It is more a response to American Eagle's upcoming MIA announcement, which will entail similar destination, as Delta has a lion's share of the Southeast-South Florida market. American Airlines/Eagle carriers very little of that traffic, because if the flight isn't non-stop, you need to connect in O'Hare or Dallas. That will be changing, since American Eagle will be announcing, probably next week, routes like MIA-DAY and MIA-MEM.
 
According to a mid '80s timetable, Piedmont Airlines would fly you to the following cities on jets from Greensboro, NC (PTI Airport):

BWI, BOS, CLT, ORD, Fayetteville NC, Louisville, EWR, LGA, Norfolk, PHL, RDU, Richmond, ROA, TPA, DCA and Wilmington, NC.

The Piedmont Triad Int'l Airport is now mostly owned by Delta Airlines. I would assume that this pattern has repeated itself several more times across the US system.