As a point of reference to other carriers:

DC-9-30/DC-9-40/737-500/E-190 sized planes (100-119 seats):
Delta: 16% on the DC-9-30, 12.7% on the DC-9-40
Continental: 7.0% on the 737-500
US Airways: 11.1% on the EMB-190
AirTran - 10.2% on the 717

Boeing 737-700/Airbus A319 sized planes (120-139 seat planes):
Delta - 9.5% of seats in F on the 319, 9.7% of seats in F on the 737-700, 12.8% of seats on DC-9-50s
Continental - 9.7% of seats in F on the 737-700
US Airways - 6.0% of seats in F on West 737-300s; 8.3% of seats in F on East 733s, 9.6% of seats in F on A319s
United - 6.7% of seats in F on A319s
AirTran - 8.8% of seats on the 737-700
Boeing 737-800/Airbus A320/McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90 sized planes (140-160 seats):
Delta: 10.8% of seats in F on A320s, 10% of seats in F on 737-800s, 10.7% of seats in F on MD-88s, 10% of seats in F on MD-90s
Continental: 10% of seats in F on 737-800s
United: 8.3% of seats in F on A320s
US Airways: 8% of seats in F on A320s, 8.3% of seats in F on 737-400s
American: 10% of seats in F on 737-800s, 11.4% of seats in F on MD-80s

Boeing 737-900/Boeing 757-200/Airbus A321 sized planes (170-190 seat planes):
Delta: Between 12.0%-14.1% of seats in F on 757-200s (lowest end is 757-5600 series; highest end is the ex-Song 757s)
Continental: 11.6% on 737-900s (173 seats; CO uses these on many routes as 757-200s are all in international configs)
United: 13.2% of seats in F on 757s
American: 11.7% of seats in F on 757s
US Airways: 7.4% of seats in F on 757s; 9.2% of seats in F on A321s

Boeing 757-300/767-300 (greater than 200 seats):
Delta: 10.7% of seats on 753; 9.1% of seats on 763
Continental: 11.1% of seats on 753
United: 13.9% of seats on 763 (10.3% on the 777 domestic in a F36/Y312 config)

Regionals:
Delta: 15.8% on the CRJ-900/EMB-175, 13.8% on the CRJ-700
United: 9.1% on the CRJ-700, 8.6% on the EMB-170
American: 13.8% on the CRJ-700
US Airways: 0% on the EMB-170/175
Continental: not allowed to fly RJs greater than 50 seats (scope)

Notes:
*Did not include international type/overwater planes
- includes Delta 757s (BizElite configs, Interport configs, the 4 ETOPS rated ex-ATA 757s doing primarily LAX-Hawaii); Continental 757-200s; American 767s; US Airways 757-200s with Envoy; United 747/767-300ERs/777s in a three-cabin config as well as p.s. planes)
*Planes getting reconfig'd went to the new config
- includes AA 737-800s and CRJ-700s, UA A320s, Delta A319s, MD-88s and MD-90s

While it is disappointing to see Delta remove F seats from the system, the truth is that Delta still is in the upper tier for having F seats available domestically on a percentage basis. Add in the fact that Delta's 2-class RJ fleet is significantly larger than any of their competitors, and there are still a very large amount of F seats available domestically.

Wow this certainly isn't good. I wonder why Delta didn't configure the 73G with 16F in the first place so it could easily be subbed for a 737-800. I'm sure management has cranked the numbers and feel this will bring in more revenue, and I say more power to them. But seriously is it worth the expense and disrupting the harmony within the A319 fleet for a period of time for a net gain of TWO seats? I'm not much of an A319 fan (or PM-NW anything for that matter) but now that the A319 is showing up for duty on BOS-SLC this will be grueling.

Does anyone remember what DL did to the 737-800s after 9/11? They reduced them to 16F/134Y, thereby eliminating the need for one FA (in compliance with FAA 1 FA:50 pax). Personally, I'd advocate for adding another row of F to the 73G which would simplify matters-better yet replace the A320 series with 737NG and 737RS once they become available. I'd imagine give DLs history and gentleman's relationship with Boeing, they would allow them to convert 737NG to 737RS when the time comes.

16F is WAY too many for the 73Ws. (What DL calls the 737-700) Personally, I think it is better to reduce the 319 to the level of the 73W than bring the 73W up to the level of the 738, 320, etc simply because the routes that DL flies the 73W on most of the time are long range low yeild international routes to places in central america where you really don't need 16F. Also, the size of the 319 is way closer to the 73W than either one is to the 738/320 category. Look at everybody else who flies the 737-700; do any of them have 16F? No. Now I wonder what would possibly posses Delta to do this. There is no way that that could be profitible. Now I will say that if this airplane was flown on routes that were domestic high premium routes, they could have 36F and still have potential. Unfortunately routes like Tegucigalpa don't really need 16F.

The reason DL dropped the 738 to 150 is so they didn't have to pay another flight attendant. Then they got smart and realized that if the bring the 738 & M90 up to 160, they could put 4 f/a's on and be able to fly many more aircraft. The weren't just limited to the 88/90/738, they could then fly 738/M90/ & 757.

This was my first gut (6.5% increase in seating capacity )until I looked at the US A319 @ 12F/112Y and remember how tight that configuration feels. 12F/132Y starts to get into NK territory. 1.6% increase is ~$4.5 million in extra revenue from a rough calculation of the total revenue associated with the
A319.

This is a great thread to see the various viewpoints of FTers; one of the main reasons why I really like this site.

Margins are so slim at airlines that often one or two seats sold is the difference between negative and positive profitability of a single flight. Let's just hope they don't ruin their 757 birds the way US did. 8F on a 757! That's when I said see ya to the Doug Parker model. But even with their crappy clubs and weak routes, people are still loyal to US.

Amen to that! ^ And it scares h**l out of me that 1) people are still loyal to US with 8F & 2) that Delta will ruin their fleet someway or another.

The 9 and 10 seat first class sections on the CR9's have been updated. ALL CR9's are F12.

The 319s are proposed to go 12F/114Y as of right now, however, it could be 12F/120Y for a total of 130 seats.

It's been a while since I've been on an A319, but it could be possible that they move the aft lavs from being in front of the rear doors to being behind them, and take away some room in the rear galley. That would free up an extra row of seats that could go in.

Note that when rumors of the A319 losing a row of F started popping up around 3-4 months ago, it was that they'd be going to a 12F/120Y configuration...

That is a pretty major reconfiguration that would require a lot of work, and probably approval from the FAA. This would require an aircraft to go out of service for a period of time.

If it is just a new row or two in the front of coach, they can easily do that overnight.

I am a poster who mentioned the 130 seats a few months ago...it was what I was told from a few people at DL Flight Ops (relaying what they were told). They layout wasn't disclosed - just the total seats to 130.

So doing a few calculations it was either DL adding another row of coach - or taking out the first class row and adding two rows with one being a four-seat over wing exit. Either way it brought max seating to 130.

With the additional row of four seats over the wing, DL is not required to have the 39-40 inch legroom for an exit row. Instead the four seats can have roughly the same pitch as every other coach row, as long as the seat next to the window doesn't exist.

If you take out a first class row and a exit row, there's enough room for 2 coach rows....

All that said, the plan could have changed or my contacts at Flt Ops got it wrong. But I'd bet the map we're seeing is temporary to prevent overbooking in either class until all 57 319's are reconfigured.

Per the Aug issue of their Mag (which I read on a flight today) -- their goal is to have 11% FC seats on all planes other than 200's (and Saabs).... ergo, if a plane has >11% FC seats, it has too many and some have to go away and I bet Delta will call this change an "improvement" in service.

Bob H

As much as I want to keep the heat up on this issue, Bob's recounting of the Sky Magazine article isn't quite accurate. Here's the exact quote from Richard Anderson:

"SkyMiles members will have more opportunity to upgrade. Delta already leads the industry in availability of First Class seating, with 11 percent of our domestic seats in First or Business class."

The rumored A319 reconfiguration drops it from above to below the fleet average, but to be fair, they didn't say in Sky Magazine that 11 percent is the target for the fleet overall, it was just called out as the fleet average.

None of this changes the fact that this change is eroding Delta's one main domestic advantage, of course, or that it makes a regional flight more attractive than mainline to a frequent traveler. It also doesn't change that reconfiguring A319s to 9.5% FC (or possibly lower) will drag down the fleet average.

Because just like the 319 the 16F on that size of a bird doesn't make money. That is why every US airline with that size of aircraft has 12F or less. ;)

Oh and Delta doesn't play the aircraft swap like NW does. DL puts seats on a plane so it makes money not so they can swap them around.

I don't believe its a temp. map. why? Delta (and every other airline) over sells Y and Delta over sells Y buy more than 6. (10-15) so I don't see why they would put up this map..........So this *could* be the case but it would shock the heck out of me, just because they already oversell Y by so much now.

losing first class seats
 

has anyone noticed the elimination of row 4 from the first class section of
A319's?

this means to me that perhaps 40% of complementary upgrades will be no longer possible. this hurts orange county (sna) fliers particularly as thats all there is. this seems like a major blow to holding the frequent flier program's integrity.

any other things?

this one hurts me a lot nw platinum almost 20 years and a delta diamond.

when asking...just get chapter and verse about conditions...but for two seats?

an overtired old one