hazelrah

Maybe Richard Anderson should send Gary Kelly a fruit basket and a bottle of veuve clicquot for the gift that is Atlanta.

ClipperDelta

Not really; the biggest culprit in the Pacific was Japan and the weak Yen as usual; Japan traffic dipped quite a bit in Q2 as the weak yen deterred travel. SEA international PRASM was up 2% despite 30% capacity growth, while SEA domestic PRASM was up 6% despite a 25% capacity growth.

ClipperDelta

Sure did! The NYC transcons showed double-digit PRASM gains during the quarter despite a 12% capacity increase

rylan

Being sarcastic, or serious? Isn't really any place else that is any better for HVCs to run to...

rylan

Good for DL, bad for the consumer and businesses who are paying through the nose.

pbarnette

Just playing off of the comments that many have written over the years about how DL is driving traffic away, etc.

FWAAA

IMO, trading away profit sharing for fixed percentage raises is a fools' game, but the DL pilots (and AA pilots) did just that in exchange for small raises. Delta simply took back a portion of the profit sharing from all other DL nonunion employees and gave them paltry raises, too.

Similar result at AA, where former management offered 15% first dollar profit sharing to all employees in its bankruptcy term sheets (the concession demands) but the AA pilots traded away 2/3 of that (10%) in exchange for small raises.

All other AA employees lost the same percentage of profit sharing due to "me-too" clauses that were designed to treat all employee groups fairly. So they lost 2/3 of their profit sharing potential and gained small raises. Since bankruptcy, some AA employee groups have traded away their last third (5%) profit sharing, meaning they won't get anything from this years' expected $3 billion to $4 billion profit at AA.

Negotiate raises, sure, but never trade away participation in profits. Fools.

bennos

And yet there is some evidence of a rollback on the TCON UG policy change.

I'd like to see a breakdown on the numbers... my anecdotal experience is that Y tickets are way more expensive than before while J tickets (not counting the corporate discounts) are perhaps stable.

ClipperDelta

Delta actually did an internal poll with its non-union employees - asking them if they would prefer a raise (and reduction in profit sharing) or no raise (and higher profit sharing)...they chose to have the raise....

But I believe the revised profit sharing arrangement still kept the percentage on the top end (i.e., 20% after $2.5B of profits)....

What's amazing is that profit sharing for the first six months this year is already at 85% of last year's total profit sharing pool (Total 2013: $506m; first half of 2014: $434m). So barring unforeseen circumstances, profit sharing for 2014 could be around $900m (they are already estimating $350-$400m of profit sharing for Q3 alone).

TrojanTraveler

I've seen the same thing with coach fares (particularly to LA and SF), but fares seem to be quite a bit lower for this fall.

rylan

hazelrah

Never trade away scope, yet the Delta pilots did that too.

pbarnette

Maybe they have actually learned that adversarial relationships are often not positive for anyone involved? I mean, it isn't like they don't have some history to tell them that overplaying their hand can doom the airline and force even worse concessions down the road.

N830MH

Will DL bring free checked bags back? How about 2 free checked bags for General Member?

pbarnette

Why would they? Charging for bags brings revenue and people don't actually seem to mind enough to factor it into their purchasing decisions. Everyone is happy. So, no, it is not going to happen.