DLs loads were in excess of 75% year round?
Are you sure. Think I would need some documented eveidence for that one, my provisonal calculations for the last 6 months anyway are way short of this figure.
Youre not honestly telling me that simply moving this flight to an earlier EDI departure would have stopped it getting the axe?
June 06- 79%
August 06- 77%
September 06- 79%
October 06- 70%
November 06- 72%
December 06- 66%
January 07- 61%
February 07- 45%
March 07- 76%
April 07- 84%
Works out as an average of 70.9% if that's what Joe meant. All the info is on CAA if you don't believe me. DL's B763s used to have 214 seats, then 204 over winter and are currently operating with 199 seats.
As for an earlier departure time, the EDI flight didn't arrive into ATL until 1715, which when the route is virtually totally reliant on onward connections is quite late I'd of said, certainly quite a lot later than most if not all of DL's other European flights.