DELTA announce ATL-LAX-SYD

[ANstar]

Effective 1 July

DL017 ATL1900 - 2040LAX2240 - 0640+2SYD 77L D
DL016 SYD0915 - 0600LAX0740 - 1455ATL 77L D

Another player on the SYD-LAX route.

Cant be good for V Aus as they will be up against STAR, Oneworld and Skyteam with no partner or feed in Los Angeles.

[Going Boeing]

I mentioned this on another thread some months ago (info from a Delta Captain who seemed to be in the know). This was planned prior to the acquisition of Northwest Airlines and it shows that Delta is set on a path to being a true global airline despite the financial crisis.

With the immense resources that it now has at its disposal, there will be serious competition for Qantas/American/United as well as a nightmare for V Oz' start-up operation.

[UPPERLOBE]

What about Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic for feeds?

[blueloo]

I suspect even Qantas's crappy product is vastly better than pretty much any American Carrier.....

[Skystar320]

Blue Loo - you'd be suprised...

[barrybeebone]

My understanding of Virgin America is that it can provide some west coast links but it is not yet extensive. Don't think it will ever match the networks of delta, united or american

[Beer Baron]

Where has this actually been announced?? I can't find any reference to it.
Even Delta's own website of "New Routes" doesn't mention it though it mentions many other new routes out till July 09. New Routes (http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations/plan_flight/destinations/new_routes/index.jsp)

[Buster Hyman]

Out of curiosity, did NWA still have rights to SYD? Not suggesting that was why Delta baought them of course...those valuable SYD rights!;):p

Last time I saw a Delta aircraft here was when the 764 did a demo tour & overnighted at Tulla.

BTW....

What happened to this one then?

DELTA's 1st 777-200LR will be entering service on the New York JFK - Mumbai route starting 30MAR08.

DL016 JFK2055 - 2210+1BOM 77L D
DL017 BOM0020 - 0640JFK 77L D

[Going Boeing]

Buster, I believe that Delta is operating the JFK-Mumbai service - or at least they were back in June. Delta crews stay in the same hotel in NY and the Delta captain, who told me of their intention to start a service to SYD, was about to operate to Mumbai.

My understanding is the Open Skies agreement signed between the US & Aust means that any airline that is majority owned in either country can start services across the Pacific - it leaves other carriers such as SQ & EK out in the cold (which is fine by me as their countries don't have anything to offer in return.

[Mstr Caution]

Isn't Virgin America's hub out of SFO?
Not the best for connecting flights out of LAX!

[UPPERLOBE]

SFO is their base, but the only difference in the sched as far as I can see is that you can fly to Las Vegas & San Diego from SFO but not from LAX.

Not operating to LAS from LAX might be a turn off for some, but don't you still have to clear US customs at the first point of entry, so would it be that much more difficult to change carriers?

They fly from SFO & LAX to the same cities on the east coast, with the exception being LAX - BOS which does not commence until 12 Feb 2009.

Other than that the frequencies might be a clincher, did not check that far into it.

[Lodown]

Blueloo, Qantas used to have an outstanding product. Emphasis on "used to". I don't want to bag Qantas, but I can't let the ill-informed image of the big bad USA airlines go unanswered. In my experience flying regularly across the Pacific and domestically in both countries, US airlines:
a) usually take off on time
b) have employees who do everything they can to take care of you if you look like missing connecting flights
c) have seats that are just as comfortable
d) keep aircraft interiors acceptably clean
e) the customs and language might be a little different, but the cc are considerate, courteous, hard-working and efficient in the USA way
f) have inflight entertainment systems that work
g) consider the customer and employees just as important, if not more so, than the shareholders
h) passengers don't get hassled and treated like crooks if their carry-on looks like it might tip the scales a few grams over the limit

Wish I could say the same about my experiences on QF over the last 15 years.

[DUXNUTZ]

Lodown,

Your absolutely nuts. Try living here in the great USA for a while. American legacy carriers are old world, with dinosaur F/A's, complete disregard for customer service and exceptionally inept in regard to customer service. For reference look at US Airways and their new regime of charging even for water etc.

Northwest have the oldest, most jaded, bitter Flight attendants in the industry and i cry at the thought of them on the LAX to SYD route. NWA had the rights to the route so would think they would maybe crew it.

[weasil]

Where has this actually been announced?? I can't find any reference to it.
Even Delta's own website of "New Routes" doesn't mention it though it mentions many other new routes out till July 09. New Routes

The following press release was just posted on our employee website...

Delta Adding Flights to Australia, Brazil 12/18/2008
Delta Air Lines Inc. said Thursday it will add international routes from Los Angeles supported by a recent partnership with Alaska Air Group. In July 2009 from Los Angeles International Airport, Delta (NYSE: DAL) will launch its first-ever daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. With the addition of Sydney, Delta will become the only U.S. airline to fly to six continents. It also will add three-times weekly service between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo, Brazil beginning May 21.



Delta said the agreement will make Sydney, Sao Paulo, and existing flights to Latin America, Tokyo-Narita, Seoul-Inchon, Guangzhou, Amsterdam, Paris-Charles De Gaulle and other U.S. destinations more accessible to travelers from points throughout the West Coast through connections with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. Beginning in March, Delta also will increase nonstop service between Los Angeles and New York-JFK from seven to eight daily flights to improve connections for New York and Northeast customers on long-haul international flights via Los Angeles.



Delta said customers in the Southeast will benefit from same-plane service between Atlanta and Sydney via Los Angeles.

[B772]

The long talked about advent of Delta to SYD could be the nail in the coffin for Virgin Aust. It is difficult to see how Virgin Aust can compete in the U.S against Delta with a fleet of over 1,100 aircraft and a huge network catchment area.

I would expect Delta to now order the B777-300ER as their current B777-200 fleet is not the most suitable for the transpacific. It may be prudent for Virgin Aust to offer Delta their B777-300ER fleet. By doing so Virgin Aust would postpone their U.S service to a more suitable future date.

[Eastwest Loco]

The hidden danger in this is the round world fares.

Previously the well priced Skyteam fare required a dogleg over Incheon on the leg to/from the US. Now it is gone, and the fare is more than viable with Deltas considerable internal North/ Central/South American networks.

That is your automatic base load taken care of, low yield though it may be.

VA unfortunately has no true global presence, apart from the US connection, and a limited round world with VS, internal Europe and Australia with Virgin offshoots most of which deal on a web only or dodgy GDS basis. Hence no easily executed round world is really viable.

I have been trying to contact them via the only easy route - unfortunately Email - to get us logged in as reseller, but have hit a glass mountain. Guess they aren't over stressed about us selling their services, despite the fact we have bookings in place already.

Quel domage.

best all

EWL

[weasil]

Effective 1 July

DL017 ATL1900 - 2040LAX2240 - 0640+2SYD 77L D
DL016 SYD0915 - 0600LAX0740 - 1455ATL 77L D

small correction DL16 won't actually begin service until Jul 3rd. The first aircraft has to get to Australia first before it can fly back. :}

And it will be on the 777-200LR.

To celebrate the new international routes, Delta is offering special one-way introductory fares of $499*** from Los Angeles to Sydney for travel between July 1 and Sept. 21, 2009. Tickets must be purchased by Jan. 12, 2009

[Eastwest Loco]

We have DL amongst our 70 airline plates weasil - so we are good to go!!!

However no nett fares or special fares have been released ex Australia as yet. Cheapest J class return SYDLAX fare is showing as $14518.00 before taxes which is over what I can get on a QF Platinum corporate J class to BOS much less LAX.

They may have done due dilligence in the US market, but not here, but their handling agent cant be expected to run on a shoestring and do all their local marketing too.

16A upstairs for me on a big warm fuzzy dugong thank you.

Bad pre planning DL.

Best regards

EWL

[ElPerro]

In my experience flying regularly across the Pacific ..., US airlines:
f) have inflight entertainment systems that work

Tut Tut Tut.. define inflight entertainment. Give me QF's sometimes dodgie personal entertainment system of United's "Everyone, movie on big screen in 10 minutes!"

Followed by (on way home) "Everyone, same movie you saw on the way over! On big screen in 10 minutes".

[Howard Hughes]

which is fine by me as their countries don't have anything to offer in return
One of them has the oil, the other has market where our oil is controlled...:ooh:

[denabol]

If Delta is going to nail anything in Australia it will be Qantas for not buying 777s. Family person who works for DJ says Delta will not have any payload problems from LAX and will always be able to pick up full freight from either port.

Found this item on Crikey blog Plane Talking which stumbles onto the point that a DL tie up with DJ could occur, which I think The Australian also mentions.

Delta’s Pacific tsunami may drive defensive mergers
December 19, 2008 – 4:45 pm, by Ben Sandilands

The competitive tsunami caused by Delta Airlines entering the Australia-US air travel market may drive defensive consolidation counter measures by Qantas, Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand.

The Australian carriers were keeping their cards close to their chests today, but the mood is unmistakable.

They cannot afford to be smashed by the entry of the new Delta, a merger of the old Delta and Northwest Airlines.

Delta has a fleet of around 1500 jets, Qantas around 213, V Australia will only have 5 Boeing 777s by the end of 2009, and the rest of the Virgin Blue/Pacific Blue enterprise has around 100 jets.

While only part of these fleets are dedicated to trans Pacific routes, the new Delta is so big anything it does in the South Pacific is loose change.

It won’t feel a thing selling loss making seats against the Australian and New Zealand carriers.

A strategy watch list obviously includes Air New Zealand. It is going to be in play. The NZ Government is an unwilling 80% shareholder.

In a one company but multi-branded entity Air NZ with either Qantas or Virgin Blue is the nearest equivalent to the lauded Air France KLM merger. The parts are geographically close, all of the airlines involved are valuable brands, and the Australian and New Zealand governments have very similar policy settings on air traffic rights and competition.

However getting approval from the competition authorities on both sides of the Tasman killed the last attempted QF+NZ merger.

Is “No” forever? Would the same concerns affect an Air NZ/Virgin Blue merger? These are far more vital issues for Qantas to address than the BA merger talks it abandoned yesterday, for “the time being” as the terse statement from airline put it.

Another factor will be the commercial customer sharing deals of Qantas, Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand.

Delta’s statement emphasises a closer relationship with Alaskan Airlines (which is a major continental US carrier these days) which at least until this morning was an important Qantas partner in America.

And Delta’s recent merger partner, Northwest, was going to be an important code-share link for V Australia’s flights, which begin at the end of February.

Delta may choose Virgin Blue as its domestic code share here. It doesn’t have much choice. A Delta/Virgin Blue/V Australia deal would burn Qantas, and perhaps involve V Australia’s 777s in a combined trans Pacific network. All hypothetical, but not as of today fanciful.

Air New Zealand looks a bit lonely in the new situation. Its Star Alliance relationship with United is anything but stellar given that carrier’s decline on the Australia-US routes and shaky performance within the US.

Qantas can undoubtedly survive on the US routes with or without any mergers. But the rich pickings of the past, when it was the dominant player in terms of yields and capacity, are coming undone as V Australia and Delta bring their services to market.

New Qantas CEO Alan Joyce must have known Delta was coming. The marketing intelligence has been out there for months. Its announcement of a firm date, 1 July, for Delta to start its Australian flights must have made the BA merger look like a distraction the airline didn’t need.

On top of that its other bold initiative, Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam, is looking more like another Singapore based Jetstar Asia type of disappointment. The Singaporean investors in their similar trans border budget airline franchise in Tiger Airways are also struggling to get results than resemble any of the hype surrounded its expansions into Asia and Australia.

Any prospect of Singapore Airlines being allowed on the Australia-US routes in the foreseeable future is dead.

For the strategy teams in the Australian and New Zealand carriers, the holiday ‘silly season’ is going to mean a great deal of serious re-thinking.

[Transition Layer]

There's some big talk there for an operation which will only carry approx. 300 seats into Australia each day (and only into one port).

Qantas does double daily Sydney, double Melbourne (one via AKL), daily Brisbane, daily Auckland with more and more of the SYD/MEL flights being picked up by the 380.

Anyway, interesting to see what happens. Better for QF than SQ or EK operating the route!!!

[B772]

The DL B777-200LR's are fitted with 45J with 76in flat beds and 233Y making a total of 278 seats.

For anyone travelling Transpacific another option is the AC B777 nonstop between SYD and YVR. There are some rave reviews on the level of service.

[ozangel]

have flown AA, DL, US, NW among others.

DL have always been my preference - that good ol' southern hospitality goes a long way - have always found them very reliable - and went above and beyond when my sister got stuck in cincinati with bad wx. They are by no means perfect, but they'll get my money over the others.

Nice to see competition, we have gone from 2 airlines (UA and QF) a few years back that were quite happy choosing not to compete on the non stop west coast route, to 4 providing nonstops to west coast (QF, VAust, DL, UA, AC), and a 5th (Hawiian) providing 1 stop in HNL.

[Wod]

Historically QF have seen off the opposition on the Pacific. Despite the current popular view that it is some sort of QF fiefdom, in the past it has been awash in red ink for all participants.

In my view, the two more vulnerable carriers from Delta's arrival are United and Virgin Oz : and of these I fancy United will take the larger hit at a time when they are not too healthy.

Interesting times!!

[Eastwest Loco]

ozangel

You forget TN with a single flight no. service over PPT and FJ and NZ with flight number changes but generally decent connection times.

Best regards

EWL