By Q3, Delta expects to be largest carrier in Seattle*
Apr 23, 2014, 9:19 am
#1
Original Poster
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By Q3, Delta expects to be largest carrier in Seattle*
*based on revenue
This came from this morning's Delta investor webcast of March Quarter 2014 results. The executive said that SEA ramp up was well ahead of schedule.
Also of note regarding SEA: all new SEA domestic routes are "segment profitable" for DL.
I guess DL will be there to stay in SEA, which in the grand scheme of things is a positive for competition and consumers (although AS may need to adjust to a new reality).
This came from this morning's Delta investor webcast of March Quarter 2014 results. The executive said that SEA ramp up was well ahead of schedule.
Also of note regarding SEA: all new SEA domestic routes are "segment profitable" for DL.
I guess DL will be there to stay in SEA, which in the grand scheme of things is a positive for competition and consumers (although AS may need to adjust to a new reality).
Apr 23, 2014, 9:33 am
#2
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: LON
Programs: AS MVPG, Marriott Titanium, UA Silver
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Also, if the exec wanted to show that the expansion was warrented, they would want to show a high yield on these routes. Just because they are profitable does not mean they are doing well. I think there are 2 ways to look at this.
1. Alaska is known for having very strong yields on its SEA routes. DL may have been able to tap into some of that, but it does not mean they are able to compete with AS and earn their targeted IRR.
2. There's an opportunity cost to flying these planes to/from SEA. Even if they are profitable doesn't mean that could not be more profitable in another market and on another segment.
Idk, hard to read this guy.
Apr 23, 2014, 11:21 am
#5
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Apr 23, 2014, 1:30 pm
#7
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Apr 23, 2014, 8:31 pm
#10
Join Date: Jan 2008
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yeah by Q3 I plan on winning the powerball ....
Either they still plan on acquiring AS or they are talking garbage. There isnt enough infrastructure to support that idea both in terms of gate space or ground baggage systems to all the sudden support 120 flights a day extra. So either they still plan on a Putin/Crimea esque illegal take over OR their just blowing hot air
Either they still plan on acquiring AS or they are talking garbage. There isnt enough infrastructure to support that idea both in terms of gate space or ground baggage systems to all the sudden support 120 flights a day extra. So either they still plan on a Putin/Crimea esque illegal take over OR their just blowing hot air
Last edited by ANC; Apr 23, 2014 at 8:41 pm
Apr 23, 2014, 9:47 pm
#11
Join Date: Sep 2001
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Seattle references from the call:
Well, we’ve been very excited about the spool in Seattle so far. As a matter of fact in the month of March, all of our new domestic markets were segment profitable and Seattle’s margin improved by 8 margin points year-over-year despite a 22% increase in revenue. So we’re off to a great start, and we have a lot more to go in Seattle. So we’re looking forward to those all coming online over the next few months. And we do expect to become Seattle’s largest carrier in terms of revenues in the third quarter of this year. So we’re well ahead of our own internal forecast on Seattle and we’re pretty excited about the early returns.
Investor:
Okay. How come Seattle was only 10% to 20% of connecting traffic three months ago, but now it's up to 65% of connecting traffic? How did that happen so fast?
Edward H. Bastian
I don’t think 10% to 15% was an accurate depiction I think it might have been a misunderstanding of what we were talking about last call, Hunter, that's got to be anything else, the full depth of our connecting close.
We saw our best unit revenue performance in the domestic system, which increased 6%. We saw particular strength in hub-to-hub flying, continued strong results in Atlanta and importantly, both Los Angeles and Seattle delivered high-single digit unit revenue improvement on double-digit capacity growth. In fact, Seattle had the highest domestic unit revenue gain of any of our hubs for the quarter.
Investor:
Okay. How come Seattle was only 10% to 20% of connecting traffic three months ago, but now it's up to 65% of connecting traffic? How did that happen so fast?
Edward H. Bastian
I don’t think 10% to 15% was an accurate depiction I think it might have been a misunderstanding of what we were talking about last call, Hunter, that's got to be anything else, the full depth of our connecting close.
We saw our best unit revenue performance in the domestic system, which increased 6%. We saw particular strength in hub-to-hub flying, continued strong results in Atlanta and importantly, both Los Angeles and Seattle delivered high-single digit unit revenue improvement on double-digit capacity growth. In fact, Seattle had the highest domestic unit revenue gain of any of our hubs for the quarter.
Apr 24, 2014, 12:18 pm
#12
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Hmm. I've never heard "segment profitable" used as an industry standard. I'm assuming that DL means that each market (i.e. SEA-LAX) was profitable during the month of March. We'll see...DL is doing very well across the board right now -- particularly compared to UA.
AS may have to "up their game" a bit to compete. I wonder if AS has looked into the economics of the smaller jets (E175/E190 size) to see if that would work for them (or QX) to fly with both F and Y seating.
AS may have to "up their game" a bit to compete. I wonder if AS has looked into the economics of the smaller jets (E175/E190 size) to see if that would work for them (or QX) to fly with both F and Y seating.
Apr 24, 2014, 2:33 pm
#13
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,043
yeah by Q3 I plan on winning the powerball ....
Either they still plan on acquiring AS or they are talking garbage. There isnt enough infrastructure to support that idea both in terms of gate space or ground baggage systems to all the sudden support 120 flights a day extra. So either they still plan on a Putin/Crimea esque illegal take over OR their just blowing hot air
Either they still plan on acquiring AS or they are talking garbage. There isnt enough infrastructure to support that idea both in terms of gate space or ground baggage systems to all the sudden support 120 flights a day extra. So either they still plan on a Putin/Crimea esque illegal take over OR their just blowing hot air
Apr 24, 2014, 4:21 pm
#14
Join Date: Jan 2008
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