Time to consider upgrading Dulles equipment
 

I fly in and out of Dulles (IAD) all the time, 85%-95% the IAD-ATL route. I can't figure out why, but 95% of the equipment serving this route are MD-XXs. Flights in both directions are generally full (and by full I mean every seat is occupied) with standbys waiting for a seat assignment. If there was ever a route that needed bigger equipment it would be this one. When, historically, has Delta make that call? It would be nice to see some A319s throughout the day or even a 757 offering.

Today's drama is due to the flight being "oversold". Our agent in ATL just offered $500 to give up a seat with the next flight availability six hours from now. There are four standbys awaiting seat assignment and I know if someone gives up their seat one of those standbys will get it. Just seems like a backward approach, like how USAirways used to operate.

As far as I know, there's no specific time DL makes that call. They're constantly looking at routes to optimize equipment utilization.

Just because flights are full doesn't mean they are profitable.

DL thinks that they can turn a profit with roughly 1000 seats a day on IAD/ATL. I think an MD80/90 is around 150 seats where a 757 is around 180ish depending on the configuration. So if it went all 757 there IAD/ATL would probably go to 5x daily.

Adding only 1 flight on a 757 might screw up the rotation/utilization for a much longer range a/c than an MD88 and adding larger aircraft on such a short route would probably drop the yield from the routes they are currently flying.

So there are a lot of factors at play as opposed to the flights are full put a bigger plane on the route.

The A319 is smaller than the MD-88/MD-90

In addition to what was posted earlier about aircraft utilization, it may well be that Delta does not consistently sell enough seats to go with the next largest aircraft in terms of seating capacity (in this case that would be the 739). The larger aircraft will have higher flight crew costs and over a short flight like ATL-IAD, the fuel savings, if any, may not make up for the difference. Not to mention those additional seats would likely be lower yielding because of the lack of demand for 180-190 seats on a flight on a consistent basis. The problem with DC flights is that some days during the week they are more more crowded than others and they have a little more slack in the MD-XX schedule than they do with the 757, 739 and A320

If you think IAD is bad, take a trip up the road to DCA, where theres a flight every hour to ATL on an MD-88/90. The standby and upgrade lists are usually 40+.

A few years ago there were 757s scattered once or twice a day, but that has ended.

You have to also consider the IRROPs problems with upguaging some but not all of a route at a non hub city. If an MD goes out of service at DCA, there are plenty others coming and going. If the 757 goes out of service, you get to replace it with an MD and reseat 150 pax on a different layout. I only bring this up because there is no way they are going to upguage EVERY flight on that route.

According to SeatGuru:

A319: 126 or 132 seats

MD-88: 149 seats

Quite honestly, I would much rather ride in an MD-xx than a DL A319. At least until they are all updated, the old version A319 isn't a very comfortable plane.

Why would you make the argument to have the smaller A319?

Without a doubt, Delta continually studies their fleet utilization and they have made their decision. If the market changes, they will change. It isn't a perfect system but they believe in it. Plus, capacity discipline is something the airlines have finally learned.

Full is the way the airlines like it. Full at high fares is their goal.

You might find that many of the standbys are employees, either enjoying travel privileges for recreation, or (a bit more urgently) commuting to/from work rather than living/working in the ATL hub. Employees are people, too, but DL isn't going to be motivated to upgauge in order to fly a bunch of non-revs.

As for the slam - operating like USAirways - US could only dream of putting up flight completion and PRASM numbers that DL gets these days. DL upgrades and standbys clear pretty efficiently. Passengers can check the monitors or an app and have a BP or standby card read in the boarding line to get a new BP printed almost instantly.

Be careful what you wish for: the A319 only has 12 FC seats.

I always really liked that schedule because you could pretty much set your connection time to be any length you wanted. It was also convenient when flying to DCA because missing a flight meant getting rebooked on the next one an hour later (never had to deal with any 40+ standby lists for that, but I was flying off-peak times).

MD-xx is my favorite a/c in the fleet for domestic coach. Sitting on the 2 side is great whether traveling alone or with someone. Plus, the 2-3 setup means only ~20% of seats are middles as opposed to ~33% on 3-3 configurations. The F seats aren't amazing, but they're perfectly suitable for the east coast hops that DL mainly uses the MDs on (and I had no problem with them on longer flights like ATL-ELP when I was flying that regularly).

I do not know for sure, but personally I would have thought that was a larger aircraft. Easy mistake.

All, thanks for your replies. I am in my second year of full time travel and don't have the airlines inner-workings knowledge that the more seasoned members have.

@NoStressHere nailed it, my mistake.

I fly out of DCA only when I have to. Traveling for my business keeps me close to IAD which is fine. Besides, there's no room to move around in DCA. Bobbing and weaving through the crowds is not my idea of being able to stretch my legs. ;)

If you are asking for bigger equipment then why are you suggesting an A319? Do you not realize the MD-88 is larger?

The problem is that, no matter which equipment is operated, the airline is going to try to operate it at or near 100% full all the time. There are oversells on almost every route and equipment type, all the way up to the 744. If DL saw fit to upgauge from a 160-seat M90 to a ~200-seat 757 on an ATL-IAD run, they would make every effort to sell even more tickets to make sure the bird was full - surely leading to oversells of the larger equipment, too.

Also, I suspect you're mistaken about standbys getting the seat assignment. Volunteers are generally only sought when there are more confirmed passengers than seats, not to accommodate standby passengers. The purpose of VDB (voluntary denied boarding) is to avoid the generally larger payout and consequences of an IDB (involuntary denied boarding) when too many passengers are confirmed for a flight. Standby passengers are owed nothing if they don't make it on a flight, so the airline is not going to issue VDB vouchers for no reason.