Originally Posted by
Ripinpeace
The new terminal hasn’t been constructed in TPA yet; don’t think it’s fair to assume Delta is finished there. “At minimum” Delta is taking 6 gates with room to expand in the primary intl. terminal with many Skyteam partners. If an outstation were to get a Delta One lounge it would be TPA or AUS in the 5-10 yr outlook would be my guess.
Delta’s TPA operation alone is larger than United’s MCO operation. Factor in DL v UA MCO/TPA combined operation:
United Market Share: MCO 7% TPA 10%
Delta Market Share: MCO 12% TPA 17%
The disparity grows steeply when you factors in Skyteam v Star Alliance and JV’s.
Delta is of course focusing on already established hubs: SEA and BOS.. AUS seems to be the primary focus with RDU a second. The argument that hub proximity equates to failure has been disproven many times. TPA would never be a major hub, more of a mini-hub with emphasis on O&D that compliments/relieves ATL traffic.
If Delta didn’t have such an excessively diverse domestic fleet I imagine a 320 or 737 base would already exists in MCO/TPA. Fun read below..
https://simpleflying.com/us-airports...l-legacy-hubs/
Not many stats there but I noticed since then (December) delta has gone from projecting decent growth to being flat. Not saying Tampa can't be one of their "focus cities" but they clearly have to prioritize other cities. Another older article about how SEA is a struggle for them
https://onemileatatime.com/news/delt...g-seattle-hub/ and I'm sure they have competition from jetblue in Boston, and southwest in Austin too.
If the revenue environment gets even worse, they're going to have to put all growth plans on pause/stopped altogether to not get investors upset. Basically the United issue in somewhere other than a hub too.
I don't think it's a coincidence that on this previous crew resource update, the company basically said they hope that the satellite bases shrink from natural attrition.