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Matt O'Sullivan
July 18, 2009

DELTA AIR LINES will reduce flights between Australia and the US for three months, two weeks after launching services, amid intense competition on the route.

In an embarrassing decision, the world's largest airline has blamed the reduction of its daily service to six flights a week between September 6 and December 6 on the need to carry out maintenance on one of its long-haul Boeing 777s.

Business travellers are likely to take a dim view of the cut to flights because they like the convenience of daily services. The route has a higher percentage of corporate travellers, which had made it profitable for Qantas and United before the economic downturn.

Delta's general manager for Australasia, Steven Crowdey, said the airline had considered using another aircraft from its global network on the route but it had proved too difficult. The most suitable aircraft for the job would also have added too many seats to the route.

Mr Crowdey denied the cuts to services was due to its planned joint venture with Virgin Blue on the route or the intense competition between the four airlines. "We have looked at all the ways to save daily services but it just doesn't work. We are really upset about it," he said.

Delta would not disclose the load factors - a measure of seats occupied by paying passengers - on its aircraft during the first two weeks of flights across the Pacific.

Government figures released this week show that Virgin's long-haul carrier, V Australia, filled on average 57 per cent of the seats on each flight in April. Qantas fared much better with 82 per cent and United 78 per cent.

Virgin and Delta's plans to form a revenue-sharing agreement on the route is a tacit admission of the challenge for the two newest carriers. But Mr Crowdey said Delta did not expect a decision from regulators in the US on its proposed tie-up for up to a year.

Industry officials believe the US regulators are likely to prove the biggest hurdle to the deal.

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