Delta Saab flying

joethepilot

joethepilot

Well-Known Member
As a former mesaba pilot that was strongly affected by Delta's decision to remove Saab flying from the Northwest hubs I want to know what everyones take is on why Delta is now in the turbo-prop business again? As you may or may not know Delta has entered into a "close interline agreement" with Silver Airways. Silver will be flying Saabs out of ATL to several EAS markets. When I was at mesaba the concensus was that Delta didn't want anything to do with props, and the "Fly Delta Jets" sign in Atlanta was often referenced. Now, I understand that Silver will be flying its own colors and its not tecnically a code share, but what exactly is the difference between that and a "close interline agreement"? I've even heard rumors that Delta offered the MSP Saab flying to Silver as well, but they turned it down because they couldn't expand that fast. I'm very interested what Doug and some of the other Deltaites opinion on this is.


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scramjet said:
And ground serviced by mainline employees, not "wholly owned ground services" subsidiaries.
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Now that I've lost my job as a part-time ramp agent (employed by the airline in which we serviced) to a contractor, I'd agree as the "wholly owned subsidiary" garbage.
 
joethepilot said:
As a former mesaba pilot that was strongly affected by Delta's decision to remove Saab flying from the Northwest hubs I want to know what everyones take is on why Delta is now in the turbo-prop business again? As you may or may not know Delta has entered into a "close interline agreement" with Silver Airways. Silver will be flying Saabs out of ATL to several EAS markets. When I was at mesaba the concensus was that Delta didn't want anything to do with props, and the "Fly Delta Jets" sign in Atlanta was often referenced. Now, I understand that Silver will be flying its own colors and its not tecnically a code share, but what exactly is the difference between that and a "close interline agreement"? I've even heard rumors that Delta offered the MSP Saab flying to Silver as well, but they turned it down because they couldn't expand that fast. I'm very interested what Doug and some of the other Deltaites opinion on this is.
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There is no "Delta Connection" associated with Silver and the EAS flying going in and out of Atlanta. Delta maintains its "all jet" appeal because the only reason that Delta and Silver are mentioned together is for the convenience of booking your flight from an EAS market and onto a Delta jet. The agreement is there (in simple terms) so that Joe Smith doesn't have to go to a million different websites to book his travel.



Derg said:
I have no idea.

A new "connection" carrier is added every fifteen minutes.

My opinion? If you buy a Delta ticket, you should be on a Delta jet flown by Delta pilots. No exceptions.
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Again... there is no "Connection". After Oct 1 (for most of the EAS stuff), Delta will no longer serve those markets, Silver will serve them.

And the tickets you are buying... the one for Delta will be flown by Delta pilots or a contract "Connection" carrier. If you buy a "ticket" on Delta's website to travel from MSL to TPA, you are actually buying two tickets - one on Silver for MSL to ATL and one on Delta for ATL to TPA.
 
Derg said:
I have no idea.

A new "connection" carrier is added every fifteen minutes.

My opinion? If you buy a Delta ticket, you should be on a Delta jet flown by Delta pilots. No exceptions.
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At least as far as majors go, Delta seems to keep up a mainline presence at most mid-sized airports where UA/AA/US are largely regional only. I thought when they announced the 50 seaters would be out of the Delta Connection fleet, it meant more mainline flying. Then yesterday I read on the Skywest site that Delta will be allowing more 76-seat RJs on property. Go figure.

SixAlpha said:
How is that any different than the Skywest Brasilias in Skywest paint flying out of SLC?
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Because that flying has been going on since Delta inherited it from Western in mid-late 80s. Delta sped up retirement of the Saabs significantly at Mesaba and brought Skywest into the former NW hubs to replace them with CRJ-200s. Silver picks up some of these Saabs, I know everyone I saw in Florida last weekend had an XJ tailnumber, and then Delta starts code sharing on them. After booting them from the Delta Connection fleet.

The question at hand is why take an airplane out of "your" fleet, only to start selling tickets on a again via a new regional partner? As a wise man once told me, if the answer doesn't make sense, think money. Once you do that, you often solve the mystery.
 
Same with Great Lakes now taking all the EAS routes out of MSP. Looks like they have quite a bit a flying out of there now. Delta said they wanted to pull out of most of the smaller Minnesota cities which looks like they are doing. Skywest now operates BJI and ABR on their own pro rate. Great Lakes has taken the rest along with 9E still doing a small mix as well.
 
So in other words if delta can still get the revenue pax from EAS flying without putting its money or brand at risk... frustrating

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joethepilot said:
So in other words if delta can still get the revenue pax from EAS flying without putting its money or brand at risk... frustrating
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It sucks what Delta has done to their regional partners, but that is the risk that comes with flying with someone elses name on the side of your airplane.



Silver did what they had to do to secure the contract. The logical step up from the 1900 was either a Dash 8 or the Saab 340 and the interline agreement with Delta to fly into ATL helped them secure the EAS contracts. Also, Silver doesn't necessarily "feed" Delta. They just transport passengers from the EAS market cities to ATL. From there, you can be booked on any airline that flies out of ATL. It becomes a bit more of a hassle to book another airline though, as the interline agreement with Delta does add certain convenienes for the passengers that booking with some other airline does not provide.
 
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