Originally Posted by alfaromeo

True, but if we could not fly Alaska's code on OUR flights, then maybe we would not have 5 flights per day to SEA or maybe we would downgauge the flights. I really doubt that Alaska would allow us to fly with their code without reciprocation.

There is a graph called the "S-Curve" that shows the relationship between market share and revenue in a particular route. The natural assumption would be that if you had 20% market share you would get 20% of the revenue and if you had 50% market share you would get 50% of the revenue. Actually, if you have a low market share, like 20% you might only get 15% of the market revenue. If you have 50% market share you might be getting 60% of the revenue. This is because high fare business travelers like the flexibility that a broad schedule gives them. When you code share, you can increase your effective market share to business travelers and you will get more than your share of revenue.

So while Alaska flies some of our code on their metal, we also fly their code on our metal. The net effect is that business travelers see a larger market share and we both capture more than our share of revenue. Busting up the code share would not stop us from flying to SEA and would not stop Alaska from flying to MSP, it's just we would all make less money. I want Delta to make more money because I want them to pay me more money.

By the way, Delta provides ground services to many airlines that we do not code share with. They also provide maintenance services at the TOC in Atlanta. They make a lot of money doing that.