Originally Posted by Robert Leach

The other point about this "direct" flight is that a plane sitting on the ground for 2 hours, 23 minutes, is making no money for the airline. And, it's tying up valuable gate space.

This is at the root of why legacy carriers do so poorly financially. The $40 Million piece of equipment (aka, the plane) is idle, on this stop alone, for 17% of a 15-hour duty day. Turn that same plane in 30 minutes, and you've got (roughly) the time needed for a run to Knoxville, or Birmingham, or Savannah, and back to pick up more revenue passengers.

It just amazes me how Delta underutilizes narrow body equipment. They'll take a 777 and squeeze every last minute of productivity out of it, but they'll leave an MD-88 sitting at ATL, occupying a gate, for over 2 hours. That's 2 hours the same plane could be carrying 150 people and generating revenue.

Virgin can turn a 747-400 in 2 hours.