Delta to add New York service, takes on JetBlue

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
UPDATE - Delta to add New York service, takes on JetBlue
Wednesday January 28, 11:59 am ET
By Meredith Grossman Dubner


(Recasts, adds interview with chief marketing officer, byline, changes dateline from NEW YORK)
CHICAGO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL - News) on Wednesday said it will increase flights and add eight new destinations at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, as it takes on JetBlue Airways Corp. (NasdaqNM:JBLU - News) in its latest battle against a low-cost carrier.

The No. 3 U.S. airline said it will bring 10 parked planes back into service and recall about 200 flight attendants and 100 airport employees for the JFK expansion.

It also plans to invest more than $300 million in improving its JFK terminal over the next six years.

"I fully expect that JetBlue will continue to grow," Delta's chief marketing officer, Vicki Escarra, said in an interview with Reuters. "When you look at the fact that (low-cost carriers) are growing 25 percent faster than mainline carriers and have cost structures that allow them to grow faster ... they are a force to be reckoned with."

JetBlue, based in New York and the biggest carrier at JFK, continues to expand its popular service featuring live TV and leather seats. Last week it said it filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation for 10 slots to begin service from New York's LaGuardia airport this spring.

Delta, which already has a large operation at LaGuardia, has competed aggressively with low-cost carriers, particularly with AirTran Airways (NYSE:AAI - News), which has taken on Delta in its hometown of Atlanta.

Delta, which has some of the highest costs in the industry, launched a low-fare subsidiary, Song, last year to compete with lower-cost rivals. Delta is also in the midst of contract talks with its pilots, its only major union, to reduce costs.

The airline's new chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, has launched a full-scale review of Delta's business, saying the company still faces many challenges in 2004.

Escarra said most of the airline's 9-percent capacity increase this year will be focused on New York and Atlanta.

Delta will start two flights each from JFK to Denver and San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April, to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in June, and to San Diego in July.

Song will start two flights from JFK to Fort Myers, Florida, in May.

Delta will also add one flight on each of three existing routes from JFK to Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas, and two flights on its existing service to San Francisco, by September.

In addition, Delta will start new commuter service to Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia and Greensboro, North Carolina and increase frequencies to some other Midwest cities. The regional flights will be operated by Chautauqua Airlines under the Delta Connection brand.

Delta also said it will improve air conditioning and baggage systems and will add directional signage and more visible Delta branding in JFK terminals No. 2 and No. 3.

Shares of Delta were off 28 cents, or 2.3 percent, at $11.96 on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites) on Wednesday.
 
Nah ... I won't say it.
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Nah ... I won't say it.
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What else do you expect from a former flight attendant running our marketing dept?
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Nah ... I won't say it.
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What else do you expect from a former flight attendant running our marketing dept?
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A small bag of peanuts to go along with the Press Release?
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A small bag of peanuts to go along with the Press Release?
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Weeeeeeel....I can tell you what went into the stuff that Song sent to the media. They sent out a press kit that included blue and green M&Ms, little gummy hot dogs and airplanes, and some cookies right around Christmas time.

Now, if that's the stuff they are serving on planes to soccer moms with kids, washed down with a soda, I really feel sorry for the poor flight attendants who have to deal with those kids going to see Mickey at Disney World!
 
On Delta Express, we had a snack pack called a "brick".

The "brick" normally included tootsie rolls, gummi bears, a nutrition bar and like a rice cripsy treat.

More or less "Chocolate Covered Sugar Bombs" for the kids.
 
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What else do you expect from a former flight attendant running our marketing dept?
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What's wrong with former flight attendants?
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Just kidding, actually I know Mssss. Escarra's resume. Must be nice to be a executive VP for a major airline without so much as a bachelor's degree!
 
Nothing's wrong with former flight attendants at all!

But in the same note, I really don't want an airline captain being my financial advisor either!
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I am sure there are some FA's that will be happy to fly again...

I wonder where the money for all the expansion is coming from. Didnt we just lose over 300 million. Its amazing how a company can expand with no money supposedly.
Makes you wonder...Maybe they got a loan from Leo.
 
The loads on Song are doing quite poor. Hopefully DL can figure out a way to make song work with its high cost structure/low yield routes.
 
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The loads on Song are doing quite poor. Hopefully DL can figure out a way to make song work with its high cost structure/low yield routes.

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Because it really doesn't make any sense I think. If they improved the mainline product with some of the enhacements of song, you could kill in this market because the route network is already there.

And all they've got to do is sprinkle a little PTV/Satellite television/Interactive entertainment throughout the network, plug it like crazy and you've got the 'killer app'.
 
I tend to agree Doug ... I'm not sure why Delta went the Song route when they could, as you say, make a few improvements to the mainline network and have a pretty darn good product to offer with a consistent experience throughout.

I've got to guess, though, that the guys flying the Song birds have interesting nicknames for the big green sperm cell on the tail.

FL270
 
Suprisingly few.

Usually they just take turns saying "Well the 'talent' or whatever we're supposed to call them said XYZ".

Kind of a weird thing going on now. Because the Song FA's who aren't Delta employees spend a lot of time denigrating Delta mainline to the passengers and other Delta employees.

I can't quite figure out why. PR?
 
I've often wondered why DL gives the people who pay the least for their tickets the best product (song)!

If the airlines would put as much effort into being the best airline out there, and really kicking some customer service butt instead of gouging their employees paychecks & pensions we'd have some great airlines!
 
MQAAord - Have you flown Alaska Airlines? They've got a fantastic product and as far as I can tell doing it 'right'!

I've often wondered as well how the lowest fare paying passengers get the most ammenities, while the highest paying passengers get nada.

Strange.
 
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MQAAord - Have you flown Alaska Airlines? They've got a fantastic product and as far as I can tell doing it 'right'!


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I never got the chance to fly with Alaska. AA code-shared with them to ANK out of ORD (this was a few years ago, I don't know if this agreement is still in place). We could have ID-90ed on them, but I was just a lowly Eagle F/A and I couldn't afford a hotel, transportation, entertainment & food once I got there. The only things I've every heard about Alaska have been good things, good customer service, good company to work for.

My one regret of my years flying is that I wasn't able to take full advantage of the non-rev opportunities. I never went to Europe, South America, Tokyo, any of the places AA (or the OneWorld partners) served that I could have visited, even if for just a few days.

Who knows, maybe I'll get recalled before my 5 years are up (I've only got 3 years 9 months left) and be able to do international someday!
 
Well, grab your Delta flyboy and we'll do Europe on a long weekend!

Same bennies!
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Because the Song FA's who aren't Delta employees spend a lot of time denigrating Delta mainline to the passengers and other Delta employees.

I can't quite figure out why. PR?

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That would be some crappy PR, but given some of the things that various airlines have done in the past, it wouldn't surprise me.

Seriously, the stuff that I told you about for Song? It came with a press release about how Ralph Lauren's daughter is the owner of the shop where the cookies on Song will come from or something like that.

I'm thinking they could have used that package to tout a whole heck of a lot more relevant and important and customer focused things but they chose to pitch that.
 
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Well, grab your Delta flyboy and we'll do Europe on a long weekend!

Same bennies!
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Sounds like fun, lets do it!
 
This is probably going to become a routine where jetBlue does something then American does something then Delta does something then the process starts all over again.
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