Originally Posted by
Regularguy
Management keeps pointing out costs, but the real isssue is revenues. Go look at the operating results and quite frankly DAL has always sold their seat miles for 1 - 2 cents more tha UAL while maintaining similar cost levels.
Basically they can charge more or have less price competition on their routes and it has been this way for decades.
I agree, but it's not decades, just the last several years.
Prior to the merger, UAL and DAL were neck and neck at the top.
Q2 2010 (When the UAL/CAL merger was announced)
RASM:
United: 11.96
Delta: 11.94
American: 11.14
US Airways: 11.04
Continental: 10.94
AirTran: 10.13
JetBlue: 9.78
Yield per RPM:
Delta: 14.05
United: 14.03
American: 13.28
US Airways: 13.11
Continental: 12.87
AirTran: 12.19
JetBlue: 11.93
Then FLIBS did his magic and we are still picking up the pieces. The business customers fled when the proverbial "pizza was made so cheap nobody would buy it." This includes both the onboard product and operational stats. "The flight sucked but at least it was late."
We have improved our operation and product drastically but the damage has been done as the perception as not caught up to the reality. Yet.
DAL captured business customers from weak competitors. That's not the case for UAL as it tries to get them back.