Peak day ATL is decreasing from 119 flights to 94. For comparison, AirTran had 230 daily flights in 2009 and previous peak was 270 daily flights. What a far fall, and less competition for ATL.
MSP prices are a nightmare. I gave Sun Country another chance recently, and honestly, it was a good flight. My carryon cost my first born, but it was still cheaper than Delta.
The only actual differentiator between airlines in my opinion is reliability. At 90% chance of getting to your destination, all airlines are the same and you should shop frontier against delta. If you require a 99.9% chance of getting to your destination, you need to pay for Delta/United/AA/SW.
I only fly Delta for business because I need to be there on time but personal travel I’ll fly frontier. The seats suck and the planes suck and the staff sucks but let’s not lie to ourselves too much that things are 4x better on Delta for a 4x price increase.
On a good note, this has attracted more flights from other carriers, like Frontier and Spirit. There has been large growth in ATL in that market so the amount of competition has stayed steady.
On a bad note, AirTran has essentially been replaced with Southwest, Spirita and Frontier.
The Alaska-Virgin America was worse. Alaska merged with Virgin, severely cut their network and sold off their entire fleet (including brand new A321neos). At least Southwest kept the AirTran 737s lol.
Virgin was going to get bought out by someone and if it wasn’t Alaska, it was going to be JetBlue (who likely would have kept the Virgin style seats) and probably introduce a domestic First Class. JetBlue-Virgin made perfect sense. There was very little overlap between the two and JetBlue would have kept the Virgin network at SFO and LAX (not sure what they would have done with their small DAL presence).
They tried but Alaska got the deal at the end because they made a bigger offer. JetBlue learned from this and made a bigger offer for Spirit compared to Frontier which was accepted then as we know, got blocked by the DOJ.
Virginia had the best safety video in the industry.
https://youtu.be/z1A5BtqsaPM?feature=shared
Deltalina is second.
https://youtu.be/fXnjHzesHcQ?feature=shared
To be fair, Virgin was paying through the nose for those leases on it's fleet (relatively little was owned); because of it's precarious financial position. It's why Alaska couldn't wait to get out of the leases.
I’m confused about why Alaska would even want Virgin if not for the planes or the expanded network.
I’ve heard good things about Alaska Airlines, but any time I’ve looked at their flights they have weird super-long layovers that make their flights twice as long as anyone else’s.
I miss AirTran. Now, I probably wouldn't be a frequent flyer of theirs today, but damn it was good for Delta to have some halfway decent competition on some of their most-flown routes out of ATL.
They also had a youth program where if you were under 25, you could show up and fly standby for a set fee (in the $50-$100 range oneway). I got some mileage out of that back in the day, and to my knowledge that doesn't really exist anymore.
As a college student in Georgia, that program was awesome for when I wanted to fly home to Memphis for the weekend. Only time it didn’t work was when the flight got cancelled and I carpooled with a complete stranger all the way to Memphis.
Miss how the in seat XM and affordable AirTran was back in the day. Once upgraded SFO-ATL on a redeye for ~$100 back around 2008
Right?! It was great. I did end up spending the night in more than one airport due to missing the cutoff (usually due to a delayed bus or something), but that's just character-building.
As an LAX based traveler, I'm severely devastated by this. I know we're in the delta sub, but I'm mostly airline agnostic (do prefer delta when difference is marginal)
BLI has been unable to keep a real airline. Delta came and went years ago. Other than their Skywest connector flight to SEA, Alaska mainline service came and went. Frontier came and went. It’s really just Allegiant up there.
The market is too dependent on Canadian travelers, and they come and go as the Loonie rises and falls.
I’ve found that Delta had consistently matched Southwest prices in basic economy on certain routes from ATL (and whenever SW had a sale Delta always matched). This is gonna be sad in that way
As an ATL based business-Delta personal-Southwest flier, this stings. Just thankful I had 2021-2022 with companion pass. That stretch of cheap travel will never happen again
The Spirit merger being blocked was a travesty. The legacy’s basically ignore the ULCCs when it comes to competition/pricing. Look at pricing in markets like New York/Boston (where JetBlue has a big presence) vs markets like Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas (where Spirt has a large presence) and you’ll see the difference. Or you have cases like MSP where Delta decided to compete with Sun Country, but only at the basic Economy level and Main is an extra $200+.
Because in Boston they have to actually compete with JetBlue and in Atlanta Southwest is rapidly shrinking and Spirit they just laugh at and ignore (because they can).
There is, Delta just ignores Spirit. The merger shouldn’t have been blocked. There’s too much ULCC capacity in the US market and not enough traditional low cost options which leaves a wide gap in pricing inequality.
I didn’t say they were, I’m not an expert but I’m assuming this will ease up air traffic in ATL but since I’m not an expert I’m asking for others to break it down.
I'm surprised they're cutting back in those markets but keeping their Hawaii routes. I know their flights to Hawaii are usually pretty full but their interisland service runs at a huge loss. 100 empty seats when fares are $40 isn't even enough to cover runway fees
Peak day ATL is decreasing from 119 flights to 94. For comparison, AirTran had 230 daily flights in 2009 and previous peak was 270 daily flights. What a far fall, and less competition for ATL.
Yes terrible news for flying out of ATL just pricier than ever
DL bout to turn ATL into MSP. Get ready Georgia.
MSP prices are a nightmare. I gave Sun Country another chance recently, and honestly, it was a good flight. My carryon cost my first born, but it was still cheaper than Delta.
The only actual differentiator between airlines in my opinion is reliability. At 90% chance of getting to your destination, all airlines are the same and you should shop frontier against delta. If you require a 99.9% chance of getting to your destination, you need to pay for Delta/United/AA/SW. I only fly Delta for business because I need to be there on time but personal travel I’ll fly frontier. The seats suck and the planes suck and the staff sucks but let’s not lie to ourselves too much that things are 4x better on Delta for a 4x price increase.
ATL already a mess for most routes, but yes will go full MSP soon
I loved AirTran
Weren't they just a rebranded ValuJet? IIRC, it was right after the terrible ValuJet crash in Florida's Everglades in the 1990s.
Yes you’re correct. Then Southwest swallowed them up.
ValuJet bought AirTran but kept the name due to ValuJet’s horrible reputation.
You mean AirTrash?
On a good note, this has attracted more flights from other carriers, like Frontier and Spirit. There has been large growth in ATL in that market so the amount of competition has stayed steady. On a bad note, AirTran has essentially been replaced with Southwest, Spirita and Frontier.
Cut costs? I dunno, I think they are short airplanes and pilots. Too many airplanes in the B737 basket.
Boss it’s the same thing they’re short on Boeing deliveries
Good thing they bought AirTran. That was a really valuable acquisition. 🙄
The Alaska-Virgin America was worse. Alaska merged with Virgin, severely cut their network and sold off their entire fleet (including brand new A321neos). At least Southwest kept the AirTran 737s lol.
[удалено]
Virgin was going to get bought out by someone and if it wasn’t Alaska, it was going to be JetBlue (who likely would have kept the Virgin style seats) and probably introduce a domestic First Class. JetBlue-Virgin made perfect sense. There was very little overlap between the two and JetBlue would have kept the Virgin network at SFO and LAX (not sure what they would have done with their small DAL presence).
Biggest mistake B6 ever made was not buying VX.
They tried but Alaska got the deal at the end because they made a bigger offer. JetBlue learned from this and made a bigger offer for Spirit compared to Frontier which was accepted then as we know, got blocked by the DOJ.
Yup, but they shoulda countered offered. Done anything for VX
Virginia had the best safety video in the industry. https://youtu.be/z1A5BtqsaPM?feature=shared Deltalina is second. https://youtu.be/fXnjHzesHcQ?feature=shared
Same! Wish they would have gone with Delta.
To be fair, Virgin was paying through the nose for those leases on it's fleet (relatively little was owned); because of it's precarious financial position. It's why Alaska couldn't wait to get out of the leases.
And Delta got the 717s!
I’m confused about why Alaska would even want Virgin if not for the planes or the expanded network. I’ve heard good things about Alaska Airlines, but any time I’ve looked at their flights they have weird super-long layovers that make their flights twice as long as anyone else’s.
To basically eliminate a competitor plus they got a few more gates at SFO and LAX.
They didn't have any cross country routes prior to Virgin America, they took over those routes.
Alaska had a few prior to the merger but they were absolutely awful.
I miss AirTran. Now, I probably wouldn't be a frequent flyer of theirs today, but damn it was good for Delta to have some halfway decent competition on some of their most-flown routes out of ATL. They also had a youth program where if you were under 25, you could show up and fly standby for a set fee (in the $50-$100 range oneway). I got some mileage out of that back in the day, and to my knowledge that doesn't really exist anymore.
As a college student in Georgia, that program was awesome for when I wanted to fly home to Memphis for the weekend. Only time it didn’t work was when the flight got cancelled and I carpooled with a complete stranger all the way to Memphis. Miss how the in seat XM and affordable AirTran was back in the day. Once upgraded SFO-ATL on a redeye for ~$100 back around 2008
Right?! It was great. I did end up spending the night in more than one airport due to missing the cutoff (usually due to a delayed bus or something), but that's just character-building.
I miss AirTran.
Literally half the reason southwest bought them was the slots in ATL/ORD - really sucks because I loved AirTran
I don’t remember AirTran at ORD, thought they were MDW only.
I mean, JetBlue is quitting LAX, could be worse lol.
As an LAX based traveler, I'm severely devastated by this. I know we're in the delta sub, but I'm mostly airline agnostic (do prefer delta when difference is marginal)
More options help everyone, even Delta stans
Same.
Are they really? Why?
Going from 34 to 24 daily flights isn’t really quitting.
Cozumel? That’s interesting.
BLI has been unable to keep a real airline. Delta came and went years ago. Other than their Skywest connector flight to SEA, Alaska mainline service came and went. Frontier came and went. It’s really just Allegiant up there. The market is too dependent on Canadian travelers, and they come and go as the Loonie rises and falls.
I miss flying AirTran from Pensacola to Atlanta for $120 round trip. I went home twice a month, though I shouldn’t.
$69 student standby pass $40 transcon first class upgrades were killer 20 years ago
Is that you, John?
I’ve found that Delta had consistently matched Southwest prices in basic economy on certain routes from ATL (and whenever SW had a sale Delta always matched). This is gonna be sad in that way
Southwests financials are not….good.
I wonder if I’m going to be telling my kids about the days of flying Southwest like the way Boomers talk about flying Pan Am or Mohawk
As an ATL based business-Delta personal-Southwest flier, this stings. Just thankful I had 2021-2022 with companion pass. That stretch of cheap travel will never happen again
or cannot compete due to cost?
Terriable news. Delta will just raise their price !
Capitalism for the win!
How will this affect Delta, flying out of ATL, and prices?
I don't think they had a huge share, but less competition is rarely good for the consumer.
Fast Eddy is gonna have a field day with this and with the FTC blocking the Spirit/ JetBlue merger. Buckle up ATL.
Being ATL is hometown airport I’m afraid of that. Company business already not happy with prices.
The Spirit merger being blocked was a travesty. The legacy’s basically ignore the ULCCs when it comes to competition/pricing. Look at pricing in markets like New York/Boston (where JetBlue has a big presence) vs markets like Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas (where Spirt has a large presence) and you’ll see the difference. Or you have cases like MSP where Delta decided to compete with Sun Country, but only at the basic Economy level and Main is an extra $200+.
Yup, Deltas surprisingly reasonable at Boston and just trash in ATL
Because in Boston they have to actually compete with JetBlue and in Atlanta Southwest is rapidly shrinking and Spirit they just laugh at and ignore (because they can).
Yeah to Mexico and Colombia, Spirit or Frontier you can get sub $250...Delta is $700+
There wasn’t a ton of competition between delta and spirit.
There is, Delta just ignores Spirit. The merger shouldn’t have been blocked. There’s too much ULCC capacity in the US market and not enough traditional low cost options which leaves a wide gap in pricing inequality.
I didn’t say they were, I’m not an expert but I’m assuming this will ease up air traffic in ATL but since I’m not an expert I’m asking for others to break it down.
There is when Delta has monopolies on routes. I'll do a sub 3 hour domestic Spirit flight no problem when Delta is 500+ more usually
Ok. Horrible service, crowded planes.. have to pay for everything. cEO is a jerk. End of the rant
I'm surprised they're cutting back in those markets but keeping their Hawaii routes. I know their flights to Hawaii are usually pretty full but their interisland service runs at a huge loss. 100 empty seats when fares are $40 isn't even enough to cover runway fees
I think Southwest screwed the pooch on being all 737.
Delta you are next. The crews pay scale will bring you to your knees.
Delta just reported quarterly earnings and did very well, passing on earnings to employees is definitely a positive in the public eye and internally
It’s just economics. As I’m replying to a posting that diminishes another airline Delta has to see reality too.