tangeng

Gotta wonder about all the TATL through Boston. There was Boston becoming a hub and Boston being a secondary NE US hub. Wonder how much of those flights they want to fill with traffic connecting from other airports.

However, the connecting itineraries aren't all that optimized for total travel time through Boston, but it looks like they are at least similarly priced to connecting through DTW or JFK. This might be helpful during IROPs where New York or Detroit are getting slammed by weather and Delta can offer passengers routes through entirely different airports.

mot29

flyerCO

Has to do with keeping B6 from getting slots at this point.

bennos

Oh, mixed emotions on the new daytime flight. On the plus side, if I'm flying W I'm probably going to switch to DL's 764 service for its 2-2-2 config vs 2-4-2 on the VS A350 (though the VS morning flight is I think still an A330 in 2-3-2 config). On the downside, a 10:30pm arrival is really only useful for me if I overnight at the airport, which mostly I don't like to do.

Given the timings on the morning flight, I wonder if the equipment is going to operate something like LHR-JFK-LAX-JFK-LHR. (I don't see it in the current schedules...)

amanuensis

I was hoping to see SLC-LHR become daily year round.

ND76

I've tried to fly DCA-JFK-LHR on the daylight routing twice. I had to leave my home around 4 am to make the 6 am DCA-JFK.

The first time, my flight was late leaving DCA, and I misconnected, meaning I ended up spending 12 hours in New York; that was the bad news; the good news was that I spent the afternoon at Aqueduct, and that the Delta concierge in T2 gave me an upgrade to J.

The second time, the DCA flight was a few minutes early arriving at JFK, and my wife and I were able to enjoy breakfast at the VS Clubhouse. The VS flight went well and we arrived at LHR on-time circa 8 pm; the only problem was that we had to wait an hour to get through immigration, and by the time we got to our hotel near Paddington Station it was 11 pm.

My own personal preference is to do a red-eye, and enjoy the Revivals lounge in LHR T3 in the morning.

rucksack

I came across this article today about Delta's pilots union opposing Delta's proposed new transatlantic JV with VS/AF/KL (replacing the separate JVs with KL/AF and VS).

This makes me wonder if this UK expansion discussed in this thread is actually aimed at placating the pilots union's concerns in order to allow the JV to move forward, rather than Delta thinking the routes will actually be profitable.

bennos

Given that BA generated around $1.2bn of revenue on JFK-LHR last year, I'd say DL is in it for the money.

rucksack

And yet when VS and DL started their JV, DL offloaded a number of their JFK-LHR flights to Virgin.

There are 6 airlines offering a combined 32 frequencies between LHR and London area airports. Looking at a random date about a month out, I'm seeing DI and BA offering flights for as low as $169 and $190, respectively.

These flights might generate a lot of revenue due to the sheer volume of traffic on the route, but I'd be very surprised if this route was particularly profitable for any of these airlines due to the intense competition.

Dawgfan6291

Delta "offloaded" 1 daily flight to Virgin and is now going back to 3x daily.

even with that in mind, profit wise it doesn't matter to Delta if the plane is a Delta plane or Virgin plane.
huh? what does any of this have to do with keeping B6 from getting slots?

flyerCO

If the slots are under utilized they can be reassigned forcibly. B6 has already petitioned the DOT in regards to LHR slots and DL/VS.

ElmhurstNick

As much as I like VS PE, which is a lot, if DL can have a decently priced fare from RDU the ability to connect to a later DL JFK daytime flight is huge. The problem is the IF. RDU PE fares are crazy high compared to BOS or JFK, and splitting the ticket makes the connection extremely risky.

But having it be DL metal makes it interesting because I might be able to fly RDU-LHR/overnight/LHR-AMS-continent as a single fare with a 23:59 max layover at LHR. That would give me a full day in LHR with the protection of a single ticket.

Duke787

100% agree as another ex-RDU.

Also to the above BA stats -- revenue by no means equals profit just to be clear.

The article and numbers say nothing about whether that $1.2B actually generates a profit and if so how much#s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini { display: none !important; }

Dawgfan6291

I think you are a little confused on how LHR slots work/what B6's complaint is. It has nothing to do with utilization.

The US DOT has absolutely zero say in ownership of LHR slots. At the very most, all they can do is force a lease of slots for markets that need competition (ie DL's BOS-LHR is leased from BA as part of the approval of the AA/BA joint venture). DL is utilizing all of its slots (plus slots leased from AF/KL and VS). If I remember right the DL JFK-LHR slot pair is coming from BE while the 3w LAX/4w SEA flights on Virgin are coming from the JFK flight they are cutting.


As for B6's complaint, it has nothing to do with utilization of slots. B6's complaint is that VS/DL and BA/AA should be forced to give up slots in order to allow B6 to enter the marketplace. Highly unlikely to that happens and even less likely DL/VS are forced to give up slots in NYC/BOS over AA/BA.

Having said all of that, BAA can and will take slots away from carriers if they aren't being used. This is why you will see things like ATRs on CDG-LHR, its AF/KL/VS/DL's way of slot squatting (or a 500th daily LHR-MAN on BA). That hasn't happened in a while and Delta has been quite active in the slot market over the last 3-4 years.

flyerCO

Part of B6 complaint is that DL/VS no longer need remedy slots. Part of this is utilization, part based on the extra slots VS acquired from purchasing flybe. The DOT can indeed force the slots to be given up as conditions for the new DL/VS/AF/KL JV. If they're not utilizing them it makes it hard to show DOT why they should be allowed to keep them.