Hartsfield’“Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the busiest airport in the world. Yet, they don’t have a heck of a lot of large aircraft flying in and out. You might catch an Air France Boeing 747-400 or Lufthansa Airbus A340, but you will mostly see smaller Delta Air Lines aircraft, like the Boeing 767 down to regional jets. This video was shot from the balcony of my hotel room while down in Atlanta last week. Originally it was about 15 minutes long, but sped it up 700%. Check out that DC-10 being towed near the end.
Browsing Tag: Delta Air Lines
This chart shows job changes compared to last year. Original data from Airline Biz Blog
Terry Maxon over at the Airline Biz Blog posted a very similar chart this morning and I wanted to share the data. This chart looks at the job changes from June 2009 to June 2010. Even though there is a total loss of about 7,300 jobs, some airlines have been adding quite a few new ones. This data comes from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and includes the date with the Northwest and Delta merger.
Knowing about the recession and the issues that have been facing the airline business, I am actually surprised there are so many new jobs at some airlines. Delta might have a big bump, but that is most likely still from the Northwest merger.
Not surprisingly, Delta-owned Comair has the most cuts. Over the last year, they have cut about half their employees and my guess is there will be more cuts. They have announced eliminating their smaller CRJ200 fleet by 2012 and replacing them with the larger CRJ700 and CRJ900.
Sun Country Boeing 737-800 (N807SY) taken at SEA.
The rumors surrounding Sun Country’s buy-out have been circulating for quite sometime. I have heard that Delta, AirTran or Southwest might be good candidates for a take over. Out of those three, Southwest seems the most likely.
I spoke with representatives from all three rumored buyers and they each had their own unique way of telling me, “no comment.” That was totally expected, since either they honestly have no interest or this is a hot topic and one of them is not ready to let the cat out of the bag. I have spent the last few days trying to get a hold of someone at Sun Country, but with no success. Either this is a topic they want to avoid or they aren’t so keen talking to bloggers.
Sun Country is based at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), which Southwest has recently started to fly into. This being a new market, presumably Southwest would want to be able to grow rapidly. With the recent merger of Delta and Northwest (which was based at MSP), there could be Northwest loyalists who aren’t wanting to start flying Delta and looking for a new airline to LUV.
There is also fleet similarities between Sun Country and Southwest. Sun Country flies Boeing 737-700 and -800’s, while Southwest is just steps away from starting to fly the larger -800 among other versions of the 737. Southwest has been looking at flying internationally and taking over Sun Country would allow them to quickly start. Since Southwest is installing satellite based ROW 44 internet, they would have an advantage over other low cost carriers that fly internationally.
Sun Country recently came out of bankruptcy by creating a viable business plan. Although the airline publicly states they feel confident with their future, this would be a good time for another airline to take them over. Sun Country has announced they will be purchasing new aircraft, expanding routes and hiring 100 new employees. That confidence is good for Sun Country’s future and should make them a better value for possible buyers.
Southwest might also want Sun Country to make their books look better. Since Sun Country flies mostly to leisure travel destinations from the very cold MSP, the first quarter is their best. However, the first quarter is Southwest’s weakest. Combining the two is like completing a financial puzzle.
So most things look like a great match. However, there are always two sides to a story and I spoke with Steven Frischling, who writes the blog Flying With Fish, and he sees some issue with this match up. First, purchasing Sun Country wouldn’t mean that Southwest would be getting their aircraft, “While many look at Sun Country’s fleet as compatible with Southwest Airlines, especially with Southwest announcing that they are exploring the 737-800, Sun Country does not own its fleet. All of its 737-700s & -800s appear to be leased. So a purchase of Sun Country would not include aircraft,” he explained.
He also points out that one of the major reasons airlines will buy out another airline is to get slots at a particular airport. However, slots are not that difficult to get at MSP and Southwest wouldn’t need to buy an airline to increase flights. “Sometimes buying an airline for landing slots, fleet, routes or gates makes sense,” Frischling stated. “While Southwest Airlines is changing how it does business, Sun Country offers Southwest Airlines nothing. The airline is not even a competitor.”
So, this might only be a rumor and nothing will come of it, but it is always fun to think about. The old Southwest probably wouldn’t have any interest in Sun Country, but things have been changing over at the Dallas based airline. Will the new Southwest look to take over Sun Country and expand internationally? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
MORE OPINIONS:
* Ben Mutzabaugh with USA Today
* Terry Maxton with Airline Biz Blog
* Reuters
It is too dark and rainy to get a good photo of my plane today. But this is the Delta 767 that took me to Atlanta last year.
Back at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. I was looking forward to seeing the new body scanners here, but there weren’t any in my security line…I am going to have to look into that.
I am on my way to Atlanta, GA to hang out with Delta Air Lines for the day. I am going to check out how they operate and talk to some folks to find out what their game plan is for the future.
Delta is currently the largest airline in the world. How does such a large airline manage 160 million passengers per year, 354 destinations in 65 countries, 75,000 employees and a fleet of more than 725 aircraft ranging from 34 passenger Saab 340B to the 403 passenger Boeing 747-400? I am not quite sure, but I am sure as heck excited to find out.
Today, I will be flying on a Boeing 767-300 and I have the privilege of testing out Delta’s domestic first class. This is great, since last year I flew on the exact same route in economy.
Do you have any questions for Delta you would like answered? Leave them in the comments or email me at da***@ai*************.com and I will see what I can do.
UPDATE: I couldn’t see the reg number at the gate, but now know it is N136DL. Airliners.net has some pics of her in the old Delta livery.
United Express CRJ-700 operated by SkyWest in Aspen (N724SK)
The beautiful resort town of Aspen! It might be beautiful year round, but most people will associate amazing skiing and snow with the town. To help bring skiers each year, three major airlines served the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, but this ski season, there will only be one.
Frontier Airlines has been serving the town since 2008, using Q400’s. With Frontier’s new parent company, Republic Airways, wanting to phase out the Q400’s, they don’t feel it makes economic sense to fly their Embraer aircraft to the resort town.Frontier were trying to sell tickets over the winter to prove the route could be profitable, but they have decided to discontinue service as of September 30th.
Delta flew to Aspen from Salt Lake City and Atlanta and feel continuing the flights just doesn’t make economic sense.
Just because only one airline remains, don’t assume Aspen will turn into a ghost town. Even with the departure of Frontier and Delta, the town will only be losing 20% of their seating capacity. United Express will still be flying 12 daily flights from Denver this winter as well as three each from Chicago and Los Angeles and one daily from San Francisco.
The airport is planning a 1000 foot runway expansion in an effort to lure back Frontier and Delta. Since both airlines don’t see the economics with the smaller aircraft they are flying now, I am not quite sure how a longer runway will increase possible passenger loads.
Source: Denver Business Journal Image: Carrera Turbo