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Delta Adding Seats To Boost Margins (Per AJC)

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Old Mar 4, 2015, 6:41 am
  #1  
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Delta Adding Seats To Boost Margins (Per AJC)

http://www.ajc.com/news/business/del...margins/nkNBQ/

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Old Mar 4, 2015, 6:51 am
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"“We can put significantly more seats on the airplane without jeopardizing seat comfort or legroom,” said Delta chief financial officer Paul Jacobson during a presentation to investors this week. "

These guys are such effective liars; Delta must have a special course taught by that Paragon of Truthiness, Slippery Jeff.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 6:53 am
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typical marketing/PR-speak that is rather disconnected from reality:

"added more seats on planes by using slimline seats ... significantly more seats on the airplane without jeopardizing seat comfort or legroom" -- I can't think of any glowing reviews of coach seating (or F seating, for that matter) on the 739

"Larger planes also allow more first class seats ..." -- yet on the largest narrow-body jet (757) they are actually REDUCING the seat count in F from 22/24/26 to 20, which happens to be the same as the 739
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:03 am
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Originally Posted by Sabai
"“We can put significantly more seats on the airplane without jeopardizing seat comfort or legroom,” said Delta chief financial officer Paul Jacobson during a presentation to investors this week. "

These guys are such effective liars; Delta must have a special course taught by that Paragon of Truthiness, Slippery Jeff.
I'd have to call this "mostly true" actually.

Delta has been retiring 50-seat regional jets and replacing them with larger, more efficient planes.
^ Adding seats by increasing plane size doesn't impact seat comfort or legroom.

It has also added more seats on planes by using slimline seats
This is based on the notion that slimline seats are as comfortable as the bulkier older seats. This is debatable in that many slimline seats lack adjustable lumbar support, but I think it's a fairly reasonable claim.

...and re-engineered galleys that had been used for food service.
^ Re-engineering galley to allow more room for seats doesn't reduce seat comfort/legroom.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:08 am
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Originally Posted by ruckzac
I'd have to call this "mostly true" actually.

Adding seats by increasing plane size doesn't impact seat comfort or legroom.

This is based on the notion that slimline seats are as comfortable as the bulkier older seats. This is debatable in that many slimline seats lack adjustable lumbar support, but I think it's a fairly reasonable claim.

Re-engineering galley to allow more room for seats doesn't reduce seat comfort/legroom.
And I would agree - retiring those CR2s and using more 717s is good etc.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:11 am
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Originally Posted by jrl767
typical marketing/PR-speak that is rather disconnected from reality:

"added more seats on planes by using slimline seats ... significantly more seats on the airplane without jeopardizing seat comfort or legroom" -- I can't think of any glowing reviews of coach seating (or F seating, for that matter) on the 739

"Larger planes also allow more first class seats ..." -- yet on the largest narrow-body jet (757) they are actually REDUCING the seat count in F from 22/24/26 to 20, which happens to be the same as the 739
Legroom is a function of seat pitch and seat thickness. It's absolutely possible to maintain legroom while decreasing seat pitch by using thinner seats.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:26 am
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Wasn't there a recent thread about a Fiji water bottle in a back seat pocket affecting the passenger's lower back?

You might keep the leg room but get back pain...
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:32 am
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If lots more seats are added, the aircraft should also have more lavatories as well as larger bins. It shouldn't just be a matter of installing slimline seats to reduce pitch (and AFAIK weight too) while maintaining the same legroom.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:36 am
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In addition to the larger planes, they're adding more seats to the A319 and A320s, including taking the A320s back to 16F. Yes, it's news to investors, but I think most of us knew most of this already. There aren't really many planes they haven't reconfigured in the past four years.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:38 am
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Bathrooms and OH bins do not add revenue, so don't expect those any time soon. Welcome to DL disComfort.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:39 am
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The 757-200 and 757-300 AVOD/slimline projects aren't exactly new topics.

Two and a half years ago for the 753:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ng-thread.html

More than a year for the 757s:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-aircraft.html

As for using mainline or bigger RJs to replace CRJ-200s, DL is fully five years into that effort.

The OP might not be able to keep up but the AJC certainly should.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:40 am
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All this reconfiguring of aircraft costs money, seems wasteful (old seats are presumably discarded), and adding seats contradicts the idea of capacity discipline.

It similarly seems like an expensive waste to rebrand aircraft and service as D1, C+, etc. It confuses both the customers and the employees (FAs, phone agents, etc.). In the D1 case, it causes a risk that international business class tickets won't be reimbursed because someone will think that DeltaOne means FC.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:45 am
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Presumably this is all old news that we've all heard of.... but I'm curious why Delta has suddenly decided to add Comfort+ seats to the Mad dogs?

Although we haven't seen a seatmap yet, so it's possible they are keeping seat count the same but have found yet more creative ways to find the extra few inches.
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 7:56 am
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Originally Posted by Sabai
"“We can put significantly more seats on the airplane without jeopardizing seat comfort or legroom,” said Delta chief financial officer Paul Jacobson during a presentation to investors this week. "

These guys are such effective liars; Delta must have a special course taught by that Paragon of Truthiness, Slippery Jeff.




David
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Old Mar 4, 2015, 8:02 am
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More and more Delta will make Southwest coach look like a premium product.
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