Jim Whitehurst Town Hall meeting in CVG

[Vikedog64]

Went to see our COO in CVG today for an update on the state of the business. Among other things he said: DAL has had a revenue gap of 14%, had hoped by the end of 2006 to close it to 7-8%. Currently, the gap is 5%..way ahead of plan. Latest survey shows we are in the top 2or3 in on time and customer satisfaction, including aircraft cleanliness. @nd qtr. will be announced next week. Employees will be extremely pleased with the results. Advanced bookings look strong. All new Intl. routes are making money. ATL-TLV was doing great until fighting broke out. 50% LF going vs 100% out! Starting in 2008, will accept 4 777lr's, with 7 or 8 coming in 09 and 10. External factors remain a threat including 100 oil, terrorist tattacks, etc. Expect to see a pension decision tomorrow(Friday.) If no decision, will start down the road of terminating non pilot pensions. Overall, a very positive meeting. I like his candor and not skirting around the issues. Still planning a spring 2007 or early summer emergence from BK. Plan to emerge as a independent carrier, but will look at all options. One more point, CVG is performing great. INTL. is profitable and domestic has a higher Rasm than ATL. I have to say, that as an employee, I feel very good about what is happening here. Shoot away...

 

[WorldTraveler]

Vike,
that's just koolaid you're drinking. It can't be true.

Way to go!

3-4 LRs per year. There's some major int'l growth. Asia anyone?

 

[flyhigh]

...Jim's a smart guy and very candid. When he doesn't know something, he's pretty honest in saying it. I'm a little unsure of what he's really done though.

As for the revenue gap, a lot of that is likely the result of moving widebodies off domestic (especially Florida) and into Int'l. The remaining 1-2 pts likely need to come from improved revenue management.

 

[Vikedog64]

...Jim's a smart guy and very candid. When he doesn't know something, he's pretty honest in saying it. I'm a little unsure of what he's really done though.

As for the revenue gap, a lot of that is likely the result of moving widebodies off domestic (especially Florida) and into Int'l. The remaining 1-2 pts likely need to come from improved revenue management.

Doesn't matter where the revenue gap was. Continental flies many 737-800's long haul, exactly what DAL is doing. DAL has finally woke up. Widebodies in the domestic arena make very little sense.

 

[flyhigh]

I didn't word it as best as I could...what I was trying to get across is that the shrinking of the gap is likely due to that change in fleeting the system. The rest of what they're looking for most likely needs to come from improved inventory control.

 

[FWAAA]

Doesn't matter where the revenue gap was. Continental flies many 737-800's long haul, exactly what DAL is doing. DAL has finally woke up. Widebodies in the domestic arena make very little sense.

Many Delta critics (myself included) have been saying that for a long time now. But just when I think my view is finally vindicated (DL pulling many of its widebodies off domestic flying and moving them to international routes), along comes UA's healthy 2Q profit and no indications that UA is gonna reduce its domestic widebody flying. UA still flies some 747s (together with some 777s and 767s) between its hubs.

 

[flyhigh]

...that is typically not what they want to do, but necessary for positioning. Much like AA flies a 777 from DFW to MIA. You typically wouldn't schedule that. However, instead of buying more planes, you fly them on one inefficient route to have to profitable long hauls. CO used to have a DC10 on IAH-EWR...great for non-reving, bad for business. I think AA still has a 777 on DFW-ORD. They're all purely positioning on those routes. It's the spoke flights (ATL-MCO on a 777) that aren't a good use of assets. Some people would say that they had the time for free on the aircraft (between int'l arrival and departure) and it was moving European inbounds (for Southbound) and outbounds (for Northbound) and thus needed the capacity. That's one heck of an expensive aircraft to generate junk revenue on...even if the plane is free (ownership not included in flight profitability). Since bringing in Hauenstein they've moved more toward the CO model of flying for Tuesday profit and spilling low yield on peak days.

 

[Vikedog64]

Many Delta critics (myself included) have been saying that for a long time now. But just when I think my view is finally vindicated (DL pulling many of its widebodies off domestic flying and moving them to international routes), along comes UA's healthy 2Q profit and no indications that UA is gonna reduce its domestic widebody flying. UA still flies some 747s (together with some 777s and 767s) between its hubs.

Remains to be seen if it works. All the legacies are trying tto figure out what works for their market. What works for UAL may not work for DAL and so on...

 

[WorldTraveler]

You may have noticed from DL’s July traffic report that they are flying nearly 98% of last year’s traffic on 97% of last year’s capacity; year to date, year over year traffic numbers are at about 94%. The big difference is that the decrease in domestic capacity was redeployed almost entirely on the international system. Given that the total fleet size has probably shrunk by nearly 100 units since 9/11,that is a huge accomplishment. Few airlines have been able to keep traffic stable while going through bankruptcy. When you couple that with DL’s cost cuts, they picked a very fine time to restructure in bankruptcy.

 

[FA Mikey]

...that is typically not what they want to do, but necessary for positioning. Much like AA flies a 777 from DFW to MIA. You typically wouldn't schedule that.

UA actually has 2 class N. American configured 777s. Delta was doing the same, now though most of those planes are internationally configured.

I am not sure but I believe only AA and CO have in the past used widebodys for domestic flights VS. positioning.

 

[WorldTraveler]

UA has A market 777s which could only serve some European routes but not Asia from the mainland. They are big airplanes but short of getting rid of them, they will have some big airplanes to deal with.

DL has about 20 767s that are not ERs and those will continue to fly on their domestic system.

 

[Vikedog64]

I didn't word it as best as I could...what I was trying to get across is that the shrinking of the gap is likely due to that change in fleeting the system. The rest of what they're looking for most likely needs to come from improved inventory control.

You are correct, Fly.