hockeyinsider

I left Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul off the list because they're technically still served by Delta albeit through another Tokyo airport, but it's a point well taken.

Delta will always fly to Honolulu and Palau from Tokyo because they're huge tourism markets for the Japanese, but Saipan is mostly Korean tourists. It's like the second biggest market for Korean tourists. Delta doesn't fly Seoul-Saipan. I'd imagine the government contract for Saipan keeps Delta happy.

This is really, really bizarre. Again, Delta has a significant base in Guam. I wonder what the local bank thinks, which issues a Sky Miles credit card.

https://www.bankofguam.com/custom/fi...yMiles_App.pdf

Mountain Explorer

I don't think this is bizarre at all. DL has made no secret of the fact that they are dismantling the NRT hub. The KE JV means that they very likely want to make ICN be like CDG or AMS. How many flights does DL operate CDG-Europe or AMS-Europe? Zero. That's what they have JV partners for.

Perhaps the only strange part is that they didn't wait for the JV to be finalized (but maybe that's imminent and we just don't know about it yet).

MSPeconomist

Another big difference is the AF/KLM are tier 1 and hence earn full MQMs. Moreover, KLM and some AF flights can be upgraded with GUCs or DL miles (outside of the SkyTeam upgrade awards program which requires FULL Y fares).

hockeyinsider

It's bizarre for these reasons:
1) It has an established local customer base, including a local credit card.
2) It has multiple daily frequencies. It could have eliminated one of the flights or reduced the schedule from daily frequencies. Saipan and Palau are still being served; once daily and twice a week respectively.
3) Delta never had intra-Europe service as it does in Asia so you can't compare it to Paris and Amsterdam. If it wanted to route everything through Seoul than Delta would also eliminate Palau and Saipan instead of expressly committing to maintain those routes.
4) Guam is American soil. Delta is an American-flagged carrier.
5) Delta relying 100% on Seoul moving forward is somewhat risky given the situation at present in the Korean Peninsula. However, politically it's better for Delta to do the joint-venture with Korean than to do it with communist Chinese-owned China Eastern in Shanghai.

hockeyinsider

Good point. As of today, you are still penalized for flying Korean, including intra-Asia, unlike Air France and KLM. Flying Virgin Atlantic or Alitalia is better than Korean, notwithstanding the pending joint-venture agreement.

I don't think we can minimize how bad this. I know loyal Delta diamonds who fly between the Lower 48 and Guam on paid business-class tickets upwards of six times per calendar year, sometimes on full-fare tickets that approach $9,000-10,000.

Come January, there will be workarounds. You could fly to Manila on Delta through Tokyo-Narita (presuming they don't axe that route) and then from Manila to Guam. You could also do Delta to Nagoya and then United from Nagoya to Guam. The best option, at least from a global upgrade certificate usage standpoint, could be flying Delta to Saipan and then taking the United puddle-jumper, operated by Cape Air, from Saipan to Guam.

On a side note, I cannot imagine the once daily flights between Tokyo-Narita and Manila are more profitable than Delta's twice-daily flights between Tokyo-Narita and Guam.

MSPeconomist

What carriers operate between Manila and Guam? Do they interline with DL?

PurdueFlyer

Maybe it comes back to the old adage "You can't shrink yourself to profitability." The more Narita has been pared back, the worse the remaining service seems to do. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are only 2 NRT-based 757s currently, handling the GUM/SPN/ROR schedule. I would have thought with only 2 airplanes that those markets were already "right-sized" to their optimal level of service. I guess in the case of GUM, apparently not. Disappointing.

PurdueFlyer

United still does with a B738

hockeyinsider

National flag-carrier Philippine Airlines, which has an interline agreement with Delta, flies the route. As does United and low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific.

3Cforme

Sure it did. It ran a Frankfurt hub for five years, acquired from PanAm.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...furt-hub-1906/

hockeyinsider

Well, I take back the "never" part as I come from a Northwest background. Again, there remains critical differences:

1) Destinations within Asia and the Pacific that Delta has served or still serves via Tokyo-Narita aren't presently served non-stop from the Lower 48 or economics of a direct, non-stop flight are difficult.
2) Some of these destinations are U.S. soil, which necessitates a U.S.-flagged carrier for obvious reasons.

commavia

It was already a self-fulfilling prophecy no matter what, and Delta really had/has no choice - NRT was never going to work in its original (pre-merger Northwest) form long-term. The days of 747s are long gone.

Delta was permanently locked in the position of being #3 in a 3-way race at NRT, and the economics of a "hub" there were being progressively eroded by the confluence of major East Asian markets opening up (Open Skies) and aircraft technology improving (777, 787, etc.), to say nothing of broader shifts in traffic patterns as major regional economies and changed. This long predates Delta - the writing was on the wall well over a decade ago when it was still Northwest.

Delta has been smart to adjust to this new reality, and shift to a transpacific network going forward that will be built around (1) primary U.S. gateways in DTW and SEA, (2) secondary gateways in ATL and LAX, (3) a JV with Korean built around ICN and (4) a strong relationship with China Eastern built around PVG. That seems like a pretty competitive and compelling offering to me.

FireEmblemPride

Only a matter of time for SPN and ROR.

commavia

I agree. Those two routes may have gotten a reprieve (for now) because Delta doesn't have any direct competition (for now). But at some point, I could imagine Delta finding something more profitable to do with those 757s than to have them over in Japan being relatively lightly utilized going back and forth to beach destinations. Long-term, I think the same will happen with much if not all of Delta's Japan-Hawaii flying, too.

fsuj25

I was surprised to see this too, I would have thought this was a viable route with US government travel generating some amount of constant load. It's off they're canceling and not reducing frequency