Air France drops Phila.-Paris flights

By Linda Loyd

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Air France-KLM Group will discontinue service to Paris from Philadelphia International Airport on Oct. 4, reservation agents confirmed. Delta Airlines will begin a Philadelphia-to-Paris nonstop flight the next day, Oct. 5.

Delta has a code-share and revenue-sharing agreement with Air France. The Delta flight will depart Philadelphia daily at 6:50 p.m., arriving in Paris at 8:40 a.m. the next day. The return flight will leave Paris at 10:30 a.m. daily and arrive in Philadelphia at 1 p.m., both Air France and Delta reservation agents said.

Air France, Europe's largest airline, warned today that it will post a third-quarter loss for the three months ended Dec. 31 because of the weakening economy and a "strong decline" in cargo revenue. Airlines are seeing a sharp drop in business-class and first-class travel as companies slash travel budgets or fly economy class.

Premium air travel fell globally almost 12 percent in November, on top of declines in September and October, the International Air Transport Association said Monday.

Thanks, something to hope for.

Have you flown an MD-88?

From Deltanet:
Next year the lease agreements for all the airlines that use Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including Delta’s, will expire. The Atlanta Department of Aviation (DOA) has recently proposed plans that would double by 2016 the average cost per enplanement and make it more expensive to route connecting traffic through ATL.

Delta and the other carriers AirTran are opposed to the DOA’s plans because these increased costs would make it more expensive to route traffic through ATL and would make the airport less competitive with other connecting hubs. Approximately two-thirds of ATL’s total airport traffic is connecting.Delta and AirTran threatening to REDUCE ATL operations with DAL leveraging its new found bases including MEM as alternatives. Memphis very excited and publically courting an increase in ops.

Delta and its ATL peers have asked for an extended lease agreement to be negotiated that will span the next 30 years and protect the low cost structure that has made ATL successful.

“The airlines serving Atlanta airport have enjoyed a decades-long collaborative relationship that has been the foundation for the city’s exponential growth,” said John Boatright, v.p.-Corporate Real Estate. “Delta and the other airlines are seeking to preserve this mutually beneficial relationship through an agreement that ensures we can continue to grow and invest in Atlanta as Delta has done for more than 70 years.”

Delta is hopeful that an agreement with the City of Atlanta on the lease issues can be reached within a matter of weeks. Or both DAL and AirTran are reducing operations according to some news reports.
...


For our NWA friends... welcome to Atlanta where the playas play and the parties don’t stop til 8 in the mornin’. Yeah... the city of Atlanta, which I enjoy living in, has tremendous problems and it’s broke. Recently Atlanta and Fulton County (its the county seat) have lost major corporations and dealt with the secession* of several of wealthy north Fulton areas who were tired of having Fulton ignore them, operate incompetently and redistribute their taxes for programs and services in poorer south Fulton. Represenatives of south Fulton (the city, airport area, etc.) saw the secessions (and subsequent catastrophic loss of tax income) as racism and its just been a big nasty fight.

But add in a bad economy and a big dash of incompetence and neglect and you have a city and in part its airport begging for a bailout and demanding higher fees from its tenants which includes believe it or not the worlds largest airline (our favorite) who is also the city and states largest private employer.

From all accounts DAL is playing hardball with the city, the city claims DAL isn’t telling the truth about fees being doubled or tripled but something tells me that DAL is. And I think both DAL and AirTran are not afraid to pull the trigger and reduce ATL operations. Many say DAL is in the drivers seat so it should work out but Atlanta is desperate. Of course, watch ATL lower the fees if Delta finally supports the 2003 effort to drop Hartsfield from the airports name... Atlanta Jackson International is what I think the city council was going for.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens, I don't think its a big deal for us at all as I am sure Delta will prevail but please people, no more ATL displacements! :mad:

http://www.atlanta-airport.com/docs/...TESCHARGES.pdf
- Google News

*secession... careful with this word down here.

767-300s for ATL-DCA on Wednesday, man that'd be fun to fly the river visual in that thing.

Be a LOT easier than doing it in the 88, but that's just my opinion ... flaps 30, 3 or 4 on the brakes.

He didn't.

Yes - MD-80, 83, and 88. It's still basically a DC9. How does a Super MD-88 read on your type certificate?

I think I'll start referring to our DC9's as Super 9's :)

I don't know. I've NEVER heard an MD-88 at DAL referred to as a Super 88. American has Super 80's. Don't know the difference.

Where did you fly the MD-88 at? Do you know how many were produced that did not go to Delta? Hint, The number is very very small. The best description I heard about the DC-9 verses MD-88 was from a friend who had just finished the transition. He said they are exactly alike except for about 1 million differences!