Delta Adding New Routes from Seattle
 

Delta Adding New Routes from Seattle to Palm Springs, Phoenix, Tucson, Jackson Hole

Delta's new Seattle service beginning Dec. 20, 2014 includes:

Five daily flights to Phoenix
One daily seasonal flight to Palm Springs, Calif.
Saturday seasonal service to Tucson, Ariz.
Saturday seasonal service to Jackson Hole, Wyo.
One additional nonstop flight to Honolulu for a total of two daily flights

Expanded seasonal service beginning in September includes:

One new daily nonstop flight to Anchorage, Alaska for a total of two daily flights in September and three daily flights during the summer

Another stab in the back to Alaska?

Is it weird that DL would announce this ten months in advance of most of the new service beginning?

PHX is no surprise, and the only big announcement here.

Another HNL flight is interesting, but not too surprising, especially as they switch flying from 763s to 753s as they start to retire the domestic 767s.

YAY!!! I just wanting to go to SEA to visit Boeing. Way to go, Delta!!

Kuds to Delta!!! ^^^

If AS doesn't like competition, they should exit the game.

The seasonal stuff is nothing, but the PHX flights fill an obvious hole in feeding their TPAC flights. HNL is nice enough, I guess.

Agree with steveholt that it seems kind of far in advance for an announcement.

Sounds fancy to add all those routes, but where does DL get the aircraft from? Old routes being axed? New aircraft on order to be delivered by December 19, 2014? Unpark aircraft from some desert?

In the grand scheme of Delta's schedule of thousands of daily flights figuring out how to schedule eight more flights a day ten months out is a trivial manner for those who get paid to do such things ... many more flights will be dropped ... and added before these changes take place.

Seems to be more signs of the AS partnership disolving. Also smells like it is not a situation where DL will acquire AS since they are adding new routes vs. assuming routes.

Not if your scheduling margin is <1%.

This announcement will help SEA-based fliers deciding whether to stick with DL or switch to AS. Since AS offers many more direct flights out of SEA than DL, I've been tempted to jump ship many times. If DL is going to continue adding service in SEA then I am leaning towards staying the course. So far the DL-AS rivalry has meant a drop in fares and increased service so I'm definitely not complaining. Announcements like this remind SEA-based fliers that DL is serious about increasing their presence here.

The marketing campaign has also been vigorous. Both are frequently taking radio spots. They also competed for the Seahawks endorsement: DL is the official airline of Seahawks, while AS is endorsed by quarterback Russell Wilson. The rivalry continues...

Interesting but not surprising. I'll be curious to see if and when DL starts adding more trasncons to SEA from places like PHL, PIT, MCO, MIA and so forth. Personally I'd like to see ORD-SEA but I'm not holding my breath.

At what point does DL run out of gates for expansion in SEA?

The Saturday flights can pull aircraft from routes flown with less frequency on Saturday. That part should be easy.

More generally, DL should be able to shift aircraft around a bit to utilize them more fully, including adjustments in other schedules if needed.

How nice for Seattle. Would be great to get a NYC - PSP flight (Fri / Sat) during the winter...

S seems to be maxed and DL is using A/B for overflow flights. DL can probably get the US gates after consolidation, but that could be a couple of years. UA could drop a gate or 2, but they've already undergone some consolidation.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw DL busing pax. to the cargo ramp by the end of the year.

There is still room in A for DL's flights.

Great adds, especially PHX. Can finally tell US to shove it. DL might as well re-add NW's 753 to OGG again.

Still waiting for the short-hauls to GEG, BOI, and EUG. I guess they really don't want to make AS too mad with BOI after their preemptive strike of added frequency.

*cue the DL is making AS mad, going to run to AA sheep*

Yes, it is weird.


Delta did the same thing when they announced the SEA-PDX flights --- those were announced last fall and they are STILL seven months away from beginning (the first week of September).


The number of people booked for a September DL SEA-PDX flight at this point is likely VERY minimal. Similarly, the number of people booking a DL SEA-PHX flight will remain minimal all the way through next fall.


This does give Delta the ability to quietly "yank" these flights come, say, mid-summer, if either (a) their strategy changes or (b) it appears the flights won't be very successful (perhaps due to action by others, including Alaska).

Any SEA flights on the schedule that were bookable before the end of the year might have some seats taken by people wanting to take advantage of the extra miles promo for SEA flights. Tickets needed to be purchased by the end of 2013 with IIRC travel completed by the end of 2014.

This really isn't much of a secret. AS strongly hinted (I believe in their December 2013 investor call) about a drawdown in partnership with DL and increasing their AA partnership in 2014.

On the question about transcon routes, I wouldn't bet on Delta adding any transcon service out of SEA. Delta isn't trying to run their whole network through SEA. This is a play to get western international feed. SLC has limited international service, so people flying from, say, Denver and west would have a very circuitous routing to fly Delta to Asia. This is a play to get more western US passengers heading to Asia. They don't want to connect Orlando (or Boston, for that matter) with Beijing via Seattle (that's what Detroit is for) or Shanghai (Again, DTW or ATL/MSP/JFK via NRT). This is all about picking up passengers from the western US who otherwise can choose between UA or maybe AA.

As for gates, there's been a lot of talk that Delta will get a big chunk of A and/or A will be expanded toward the hangers. Nothing is official, but if Delta is truly in Seattle for the long-haul (pun not intended), then expanding on A would make sense. They can operate international flights out of S and domestic out of A. Plus, there's already the Port's plan to add an international arrivals facility at A that has been announced.

It is a bit surprising to me as adding 5 flights a day to a route that already has 10 nonstop flights (5 by AS and 5 by US) daily seems like a risky start. But yes, they have time to see how the sales will be and adjust the frequency.

Nice to see the seasonal JAC in the list. By the way, it's not starting next winter but effective immediately. I see a flight on Feb. 15 operated with CRJ-700.

You forgot WN with 3-4 non-stops a day each-way. Even if DL wants to feed its flights to Hawaii, Asia, and Alaska, they don't need five non-stops a day to do that. This strikes me as the kind of expansion that ultimately just bleed the legacies of cash and got them to where they were not that long ago, in bankruptcy.

I think Southwest and US Airways will take a hit on the PHX-SEA routes the most and we will likely see reductions from both of those airlines on this route.

Link?

Nah, you don't have worry about Alaska anymore. Forget it, bud! Move on. They won't be upset with Delta again. You can't be afraid.

Not weird. This is an elaborate game of signalling that is taking place between the two airlines. Delta started out small, announcing service to a couple of major cities. Then they went after some AS bread-and-butter, including PDX and ANC. Meanwhile, AS responded pretty weakly, adding a few frequencies between SLC and AS focus cities. Now DL is announcing some much smaller markets - and filling a hole from earlier announcements in PHX.

There is a long lead time between announcing and launching because there is far more value (for now) in sending the signal and reading the reply.

All in all, this is continued bad news for SEA-based DL elites. As I have stated elsewhere, the old status quo was very good for us. We could earn our status by flying on a huge network of DL international and DL/AS domestic. We get a pretty good upgrade route on AS metal. We enjoy free (DM) access to the AS Boardroom. And most importantly, we have a reasonable domestic redemption option for our Skymiles. (I have very few redemptions, int'l or domestic, that don't include at least one AS segment, at least at the initial time of booking.) This equilibrium is good. I fear any behavior from either side which threatens this relationship. Any change from status quo is sure to be bad for SEA-based DL DMs.

They can try to run to AA, but there is no logical synergy with AA like there is with DL. DL at least gives them long-haul feed into their established domestic network. AA gives them pretty much nothing. Out of SEA, for example, AA/US and AS compete to ORD, DFW, PHX, and PHL. All they bring are CLT and MIA and JFK, with the latter two at least partly competing with AS service to FLL and EWR, respectively. Aside from the codeshare with BA, AA provides no logical outlet for what AS can bring to the table - feed from PNW destinations to markets AS can't and won't serve anytime in the near future.

Besides, why wouldn't AA do to AS exactly what DL does when and if AA reaches some semblance of sustained profitability? Why would they keep their hands off the SEA and PDX pies?

Honestly, I think AS is in serious trouble no matter who they try to get into bed with. They can't compete beyond a regional level with the big boys. And it hasn't gone unnoticed that there is money to be made in their stomping grounds. Yeah, I doubt anyone is that eager to wade into Alaska, but SEA and PDX? AS is facing something they have never had to deal with before - well-financed and well-run competition in key markets. Frankly, I think there is a bit of blood in the water around AS right now and you are seeing not just DL at SEA flexing their muscle, but WN at SAN, too. Maybe AS will pull a rabbit out of their hat, and I wish them the best, but I wouldn't be taking too many long positions on them at this point.

I would love to see SEA-MCO, But I think that is doubtful. ...

The 900ER can make it.

I know how DL FTers LOVE that plane! ;)

I could think of at least a half-dozen flights they would add before SEA-MCO.

I tend to agree with all the flights to PHX are they going to bring back the club?

Or SEA-FLL/MIA/DFW/PBI/TPA.

I'll take SEA-IAH, if we're making a list

SEA-HNL has always been operated by 753's.

Here the flight schedule:

DL4720 SEA 0810 PHX 1159 CR9
DL4741 SEA 1030 PHX 1419 CR9
DL4804 SEA 1310 PHX 1702 CR9
DL4808 SEA 1555 PHX 1945 CR9
DL4819 SEA 1845 PHX 2234 CR9

DL4828 PHX 0700 SEA 0845 CR9
DL4808 PHX 1005 SEA 1203 CR9
DL4741 PHX 1530 SEA 1719 CR9
DL4523 PHX 1700 SEA 1847 CR9
DL4804 PHX 1850 SEA 2035 CR9

It's bookable by delta.com now.

Hate to use math this late in the day, but 1% of 15,000 is 150. So even if it were say: 0.1%, they could still figure out how to add 8 flights quite easily.

:) you got me on this one, but I think the u g changes are better than say a ATL-SEA on this same plane. I may be willing to take the chance :)

DL started SEA-JAC just before Christmas last year and it runs through March. So I guess restarting seasonal winter service next year counts as "new service."

HNL is a re-add though, right? Didn't NWA have 2x daily? Event after the merger for a bit?

I think the 15,000 flight number includes all SkyTeam flights ...

Yes, they did. It was right before merger with Delta. The flight is always full.