More Delta/ExpressJet LAX expansion...

[Captain_Bob]

More Delta LAX "HUB" and ExpressJet expansion...

http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=119215

Delta Builds On Successful Los Angeles Expansion With 21 New Daily Flights to Nine Cities

Newest routes enhance connecting opportunities between Mexico, Central America and cities throughout the West

LOS ANGELES, May 9, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Delta Air Lines (NYSEAL) will accelerate the pace of its expansion at Los Angeles International Airport with the addition of 21 new daily flights to nine cities spanning from Canada to Colorado, effective July 1. With the expansion, Delta will offer customers flying to, from or through Los Angeles 100 peak-day departures to 48 nonstop destinations -- an increase of nearly 105 percent from the same time last year.

The expansion accelerates Delta's efforts to transform Los Angeles into a leading gateway for travel between the West Coast and Mexico and Central America. With the July schedule, Delta plans to offer Los Angeles customers flights to 17 destinations in Mexico and Central America and nonstop service to leading West Coast business markets such as San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Vancouver.

"Based on our success to date, Delta is eager to introduce additional growth for customers in Los Angeles this summer," said Glen Hauenstein, Delta's executive vice president -- Network Planning and Revenue Management. "In the last year Delta has added more than 55 flights to 34 destinations from Los Angeles to reach a growing customer base that is hungry for additional competition. Our newest markets will improve connections between destinations across Mexico and Central America with communities throughout the West with a growing demand for travel."

Delta Connection carrier ExpressJet Airlines will operate the new routes using 50-passenger Embraer 145 regional jets with upgraded in-flight entertainment with more than 100 channels of free XM Satellite Radio and redesigned, memory foam leather seating with no middle seats. The new flights will be timed to conveniently connect customers to existing Delta and Delta Connection flights at the L.A. gateway, including dozens of flights to Mexico; transcontinental service to New York, Boston, Florida and Atlanta; and nonstop service to Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and points throughout the West.

Delta's new nonstop service from Los Angeles is scheduled as follows:
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City..... # of New Daily Flights RT Flights.... Effective........ Frequency........ Carrier
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Boise,.................... 1............................. July 1 ...............Daily..........ExpressJet
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Denver,................. 4............................. July 1,............... Daily........ ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Oakland,................ 2*.......................... July 1,................ Daily........ ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Phoenix................. 4............................. July 1,.............. Daily.......... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sacramento........... 2*............................July 1,............... Daily......... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco........ 2**......................... July 1,............... Daily.......... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
San Jose,.............. 4............................. July 1,.............. Daily.......... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Spokane, ..............1.............................. July 1,.............. Daily.......... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Vancouver............. 1 .............................July 1, ..............Daily........... ExpressJet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
* Expands to four the number of daily round-trip flights in the market
** Expands to six the number of daily round-trip flights in the market

With this expansion, ExpressJet will operate 18 regional jet aircraft in the Delta Connection fleet from the Los Angeles gateway or the Salt Lake City hub.

Delta is the fastest growing airline in terms of destinations served at Los Angeles International Airport, with 34 destinations added in the last year. In addition to 17 new routes added to Mexico and Central America, Delta has also added service between Los Angeles and numerous U.S. destinations, including Anchorage, McAllen, Texas, Jacksonville, Fla., Seattle, New Orleans, Portland, Oregon; Reno and Las Vegas. With its July schedule, Delta plans to offer 681 weekly departures from Los Angeles to 48 nonstop destinations***.

Delta Air Lines offers customers service to more destinations than any global airline with Delta and Delta Connection carrier service to 311 destinations in 52 countries. With more than 60 new international routes added in the last year, Delta is adding international flights at a faster rate than any other major U.S. airline and is a leader across the Atlantic with flights to 32 trans-Atlantic destinations. To Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta offers more than 600 weekly flights to 58 destinations. Delta's marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on nearly 15,000 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. Including its SkyTeam and worldwide codeshare partners, Delta offers flights to 462 worldwide destinations in 98 countries. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes and check flight status at delta.com.

*** Some flights between Los Angeles and McAllen, Texas; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Reno; and Las Vegas may be operated by Delta Connection carrier ExpressJet. Flights to Los Mochis, Mexico (effective June 2); Tijuana, Mexico (effective June 7); and Zacatecas, Mexico (effective June 8) are subject to foreign government approval.The Delta Air Lines, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1825

CONTACT: Delta Air Lines Corporate Communications 404-715-2554

 

[derg]

Cool, so I can now travel PHX-LAX-LAS on my own airline.

 

[derg]

Oh, here's the important part of the release, bonehead!

NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL.N: Quote, Profile , Research) on Wednesday said it will add 21 new daily flights at Los Angeles International Airport, which it plans to turn into a future hub for service to Asia and Latin America.

 

[OldTownPilot]

There goes the theory about a really cheap CPA to place those 10 aircraft with an airline.

Very cool.

Now where are they going to park all those airplanes?

 

[Captain_Bob]

Oh, here's the important part of the release, bonehead!


Quote:
NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL.N: Quote, Profile , Research) on Wednesday said it will add 21 new daily flights at Los Angeles International Airport, which it plans to turn into a future hub for service to Asia and Latin America.

I totally missed that... But that is GREAT NEWS for you my friend!! Woohoo!!

Bob

 

[Kristie]

coolio! now we can go to LAS, Anchorage and Vancover...Hey, we might be able to get to an Anchorage M&G a lot easier! I'd so love to get back up there this year!

 

[Captain_Bob]

Cool, so I can now travel PHX-LAX-LAS on my own airline.

Enjoy the XM radio...

 

[Alchemy]

Interesting.....wonder where the 8 additional planes are coming from, charter side? Either way good news for xjet. From what I hear, it will be a non-cpa type agreement, probably more of a codeshare similair to what Colgan has with its partners, since having more than 10 aircraft in a CPA with Delta would interefer with xjet's CO CPA. I would be interested to learn more about that.

Good news in any event.

 

[Captain_Bob]

From what I hear, it will be a non-cpa type agreement... I would be interested to learn more about that.

Good news in any event.

That's Correct.. the 8 additional planes will not be a CPA... it will be a Pro-rate agreement.

It looks like (for now) they will take 6 planes from Charter and 2 from Branded...

...and yes... good news... so far.

Bob

 

[wheelsup]

There goes the theory about a really cheap CPA to place those 10 aircraft with an airline.

I disagree - from another article:

ExpressJet is currently in the process of negotiating a definitive
agreement pursuant to which it will operate an additional eight aircraft at
LAX on behalf of Delta beginning July 1, 2007 under a pro-rate arrangement.

Under this arrangement, ExpressJet will be responsible for local market
pricing and revenue management, the operation and maintenance of the
aircraft and will share responsibility for the schedule and marketing with
Delta. ExpressJet expects to earn a pro-rated portion of the fare plus an"
incentive for passengers connecting onto Delta's network.

This would be different from their CAL and DAL fee-for-departure agreements. It's somewhat "at risk".

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-09-2007/0004584137&EDATE

 

[CapnJim]

So far so good!
I just got done with Jepp Revision 9, man, I'm going to have to get a new binder! Then again, if it all goes tits-up, well, hey, at least my flight bag will be lighter.

 

[OldTownPilot]

Since the pro-rate stuff wasn't in Bob's post I assumes it was an expansion of the CPA. I stand corrected.

I thought Charter was doing very well for you guys? Why take the airplanes from there? I know you guys have a crapload of options for more XR's from Embraer, Would new deliveries be a possibility?

 

[Alchemy]

This also makes you wonder if we will pull out of the ONT-BOI/GEG/SMF on the branded side. If we are flying at-risk flights out of LAX it wouldn't make much sense to directly compete with ourselves, unless those markets really are big enough to support service to both airports .

 

[DE727UPS]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. The two times I've flown Xjet GEG-ONT there were 6 pax and 14 pax.

 

[Captain_Bob]

I thought Charter was doing very well for you guys? Why take the airplanes from there? I know you guys have a crapload of options for more XR's from Embraer, Would new deliveries be a possibility?

It is... But... this is just a quick and easy way to get the aircraft needed. I fully expect the existing charter aircraft utilization to go through the roof as a result of this...

As far as the options... the rumors are rampant right now. It's anybody's guess.

Bob

 

[derg]

Is this 'pro rate' something like the 'pay to play' which Michael Boyd talks about?

Excerpt from the May 7 "Hot Flash"

Trend: SJPs & Pay-To-Play. Historically (which in the airline business means for maybe the last five years) the trend has been major carriers paying small jet providers within some variation of a cost-plus arrangement. The SJP just files the plane where the major tells it to, and gets a payment at the end of the month. No risk, no worries, no need for expensive infrastructure like sales, reservations, or revenue-accounting. Just a happy vendor. (That's over simplified, but it will do for the purposes of this discussion.)

Those days are coming to an end. Increasingly, instead of major carriers paying these SJPs on a cost-plus basis, the trend will be going in the opposite direction. There will be more at-risk flying, and with the emerging glut of 50-seat jets, we'll be finding some SJPs desperate to place excess airplanes. That means that majors will move gradually toward actually charging a “brand-use” fee to the SJP the operator for some, or even all, of the flying it does. That means, then, that those operators are going to be looking at sure-thing, slam-dunk markets for their excess jets. Small airports need not apply.

What all this means is that, a) the machinery that has traditionally had the operational costs to serve small communities will be getting more scarce in the future, b) the incremental new feed from smaller communities is becoming less and less valuable to major carrier systems, and c) the entities that would be operating such markets – the SJPs – are being pushed into taking more of the risk – or, in some cases, all of the risk – of such flying.

Add it all together, and a small community that sashays into a major carrier’s planning department, flashing a PowerPoint showing silly MIDT-generated maps, sloppy DOT O&D data, and whining about how much leakage it has, will get summarily tossed out of the building - assuming it can get an appointment in the first place. A whole lot more juice is going to be needed in the future to get and keep service at smaller airports.

 

[Captain_Bob]

This also makes you wonder if we will pull out of the ONT-BOI/GEG/SMF on the branded side. If we are flying at-risk flights out of LAX it wouldn't make much sense to directly compete with ourselves, unless those markets really are big enough to support service to both airports .

From what the LA folks are telling me... it really is two different markets. I'm not from there... so I don't really know.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. The two times I've flown Xjet GEG-ONT there were 6 pax and 14 pax.

The loads are rising... the airline is still in it's infancy. I did ONT-GEG on the 2nd and we had 35.

We are told that there would be no changes immediately since they want to see what the markets do and to try to build brand recognition at the same time.

But I would imagine (and expect/hope) that if they find that certain routes are just not working... then they will change things up a bit.

Bob

 

[Nick]

Captain Bob = Human XJT NewsBot

 

[Captain_Bob]

Is this 'pro rate' something like the 'pay to play' which Michael Boyd talks about?

Excerpt from the May 7 "Hot Flash"

Something like that... from what I understand... we have a lot more control over our own operation and costs in this agreement. This can be really good... or really bad... depending on how we operate. The onus is more on us.

Overall it's seems more beneficial to Delta right now. But if we manage our cost structure appropriately... then we may do better than expected.

Jim Ream (XJT-CEO) has made more than one comment on company conference calls... that he would love to operate outside of CPA's. So... hopefully they've been thinking about this for a long time and actually have a plan to make it work.

Bob

 

[wheelsup]

Is this 'pro rate' something like the 'pay to play' which Michael Boyd talks about?

Excerpt from the May 7 "Hot Flash"

Sure sounds like it.

The management at my company refused to get 70 seaters, saying they were a "band aid" to the current 50 seater issue. Looks like they were right. The 90 seat market is where the "regionals" seem to be headed.