Huh? You must have DL confused with UA? UA has whittled its once mighty South American route map down to just two cities. In the past 7 years, Delta has built a respectable Latin American operation from scratch.

AA is far and away the #1 U.S. carrier to South America with 17 destinations served, however Delta serves every primary business market in Latin America with the exception of Buenos Aires.

DL and AA are not equal in European market presence. AA serves 7 destinations. DL is the #1 U.S. carrier across the Atlantic in just about every conceivable measure: RPMs (recognized as the primary measure of market presence), passengers carried, cargo tonnage carried, destinations served (24), and nonstop markets served (something like 40).

The only place in Europe AA has any type of advantage over DL is London, thanks to the Heathrow access and all the things that LHR enables AA and UA to do in the London market that DL cannot do from LGW. Aside from that, AA's presence in Europe is quite limited and will continue to be for some time, with the absence of any viable European partner.

I apologize for posting two consecutive times. I don't mean to be confrontational, but few things irk me more than when people make claims without supporting them. I think we've seen two major examples of that on this topic.

[This message has been edited by N866DA (edited Dec 24, 2003).]