<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
Packed flights are not always profitable. I was in MSY last weekend (flew on US) and had 5 friends all fly DL in from various parts of the USA. NOT ONE of them paid more than $116 for a r/t. At some point somethings got to give...</font>
ATL-JAX is 270 miles. DL flies 2 757's and 7 767's daily, with loads over 95% every month. I'm not certain about other markets such as MSY, but DL does not do cut-throat fares here despite direct competition from Airtran and the presence of Southwest. They fill the aircraft with Medallions from all over the southeast who pay 40 to 50% less for a full Y seat than on US.
US's response was to eliminate the usually overbooked 7:30 AM to CLT which returned at 8PM and replaced it with an extra flight to PHL that I have never seen more than half full.