Too bad you guys missed it,60's-70's,them granmas'were all busy with"room service".on layovers, brought thier own whiskey too.

 

Here is what I think about that:

U.S.-LHR: We won't lose what we have now. By coordinating schedules with VA and eventually pricing, we'll be able to move much more traffic onto the DL system, where we make 100 percent of the profits. The passenger in England is no longer obliged to take BA and therefore American to get to Des Moines. In the long run, it may allow for larger aircraft and more flights for us to LHR. Do I want that VA A380 in Atlanta? The answer is a qualified yes. Yes, if we don't reduce our service in that market accordingly, because I want that A380 full of passengers that otherwise would have flown AA or United to be on Delta when they connect.

Asia: VA not really a big player there, and LHR isn't really a big connecting point from the US to Asia. That's why Singapore sold their share, it just was too far afield to do anything with.

Caribbean: I think we stand to gain. DL flies all over the Caribbean, and by gaining access to the huge, number one market in England, we now are able to fill those flights with more people- see ATL above. I don't think VA can really feed their network into or out of the Caribbean without us.

Africa: AF/KLM provides more service to the Continent than anyone. If you are traveling from the US, DL has direct service. So I don't think Africa will change much at all as a result of the JV with VA, not a gain or loss there.


Will Virgin Atlantic grow as a result of this? Probably yes. Will they fly to more US markets? Probably yes. But I do think we'll see some growth as a result also. Some of that will be more narrow bodies flying ATL to Jamaica. Some will be bigger profits. Some I hope will be new service to LHR from previously unserved markets. Some will be bigger corporate contracts.

Sir Richard was notably absent from the press conference. He is a visionary, a maverick, and a hell of a showman. But he's not an airline executive. He has dyslexia. The last thing he wants is some analyst asking him questions about a spreadsheet. He built a great brand. His genius is knowing that he needs an expert to save it. Delta is arguably the best run airline in the world today. RA is arguably the best CEO. It speaks volumes that Sir Richard was not present at the announcement. We just picked up a brand that is loved and admired around the world, and slots at the most desirable airport in the world for the price that UCAL paid for 4 flights to LHR, and now they are dead last in the market and the music has stopped.

 

Great. Then it's time for them to teach that to the newer ones and pass on the torch.

 

If you are right, then dinner and beer are on me.

 

promises, promises...

 

Wow! That's hilarious because it's the opposite for me. My iPhone 4 was flawless, but placing the cursor mid paragraph on my Android is a PITA!!!! I'll agree that Apple maps is an EPIC FAIL. Google maps is far superior.

 

From Safari I've selected google maps then "Add to Home Screen" to make it (sort of) like google maps used to be. Works OK.

 

Not to my knowledge. The JFK-Europe stuff came with Pan Am in 1991, they were using their A300's to fly most of Europe out of JFK, until those were replaced by the 76ERs.

Pan Am also had 747's of course, they might have been using those on JFK-CDG until they started going bankrupt, not long after that Lockerbie bombing incident.

 

This might be metal neutral for us, and a huge win for the corporation. The devil will be where and how that metal neutral flying goes in terms of routes. Will we share routes to the same airport, or split them up while still being neutral? I can't see DAL walking away from it's own brand in JFK while trying to be the preferred airline there. OTOH I can't see Branson ceding NYC to DAL either and focusing on subsidiary markets.

There is the potential for our flying out of JFK to be diluted while being capacity/metal neutral or balanced in a JV. This could affect NYC based ER crews adversely depending on which base picks up the flying.

Bottom line is this will be good for DAL, pilots TBD, and likely neutral at best. What I do find interesting is that this deal was tried before earlier this year, yet my MSP reps said they were never briefed on a previous attempt - that occurred just before there was the rush to our TA.

Either someone knew about this and didn't brief the LEC's, or the highly vaunted engagement with management failed to inform the MEC of this little development. I hope it is the latter because the implications of the former are troublesome.

 

If the goal is for VA to get back to profitability, then I'd expect to see them cut a lot of service to leisure markets and beef up the business markets. So markets like Las Vegas, Miami, Barbados, and Cancun get the axe while markets like Washington, Boston, Chicago, NY get added flights. And they don't serve ATL at all right now, so I'd expect to see a few flights added there to connect to the aforementioned leisure markets.

As for us, our LHR flights are relatively few right now, except for ATL and JFK. I don't see us expanding Delta flights a whole lot to LHR, although with the JV, you might see a new flight from, say SLC or SEA. Or maybe some deal with a city like PHL. In any event, we need our union to negotiate the appropriate protections for us.