Atlanta Airport - Airline Service & Routes Updates Thread (Dallas: bankrupt, title)

[Todd_96]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Related: Delta Air Lines, Atlanta eye 30-year pact for Hartsfield-Jackson airport | SaportaReport

Looks like Delta and the city are considering signing a long term contract around supporting the airport master plan including building the 6th runway and additional concourses.

That's crazy. Can this airport get any bigger?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Todd_96

That's crazy. Can this airport get any bigger?

Well it keeps growing, for now I think the answer is yes.

[testa50]

Lots of new announcements for OTHER cities, including Dallas getting two routes to China and new service by Qatar and Ethiad. But nothing much for Atlanta. Delta downgauged Atlanta - Manchester from A330 to 767 for next summer, but that's pretty marginal/unimportant.

One thing we had speculated about a lot in this thread was Korean with its daily A380, and whether they would actually continue to run their midnight flight on a 777-200 3x a week. Per flightaware, the daily noon departure is now 100% A380 and the 3x weekly 777 is still running. So that's good news--the upgraded flight managed to survive the codeshare gutting! At least for the time being...

I just got off a brand new, Delta 737-900ER from Tampa. Awesome ride, with very good in flight entertainment. Can't wait to ride in a DL 717, also.

2013 was a year of Delta really focusing on domestic. Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, plus making ATL more efficient with these new aircraft. Delta made TONS of money this year--forecasting over $2.5 billion, which is astonishing. Hopefully Delta can leverage its vastly improved domestic network into some exciting new international opportunities in 2014.

Also, let's get a gulf carrier in here. Any one will do. I know Delta doesn't codeshare with any of them, but if DFW can support THREE then I think Atlanta can have more than a single Delta route to Dubai, which serves a completely different market than a gulf carrier would.

[Atlwarrior]

Yay Atlanta to Istanbul route at hand.

Turkish Airlines Eyeing Atlanta-Istanbul Nonstop Flight

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Yay Atlanta to Istanbul route at hand.

Turkish Airlines Eyeing Atlanta-Istanbul Nonstop Flight

Meh, in 3-4 years. My money is on getting a gulf carrier before that.

The interesting thing is that Delta won't be able to retaliate against that sort of competition. It has its ATL - DXB route, which probably exists partly to preempt competition from Emirates. But if Turkish or, especially, Qatar started a route, Delta wouldn't be able to match it. To date, the only international route out of Atlanta that Delta doesn't fly is Seoul, but this seems likely to change within a few years.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by testa50

Meh, in 3-4 years. My money is on getting a gulf carrier before that.

The interesting thing is that Delta won't be able to retaliate against that sort of competition. It has its ATL - DXB route, which probably exists partly to preempt competition from Emirates. But if Turkish or, especially, Qatar started a route, Delta wouldn't be able to match it. To date, the only international route out of Atlanta that Delta doesn't fly is Seoul, but this seems likely to change within a few years.

I am particularly excited about having another option to Israel besides Delta through JFK. Qatar and Emirates would not offer that even with flights from Atlanta.

[testa50]

KLM S14 Long-Haul Operation Changes as of 19DEC13 | Airline Route

KLM upgrading from A330-300 to 777-200ER. It's just an extra 30 seats each way, but you've gotta love that foreign metal being upgraded to the bigger planes. I love both planes, but Delta flies tons of A330s out of Atlanta daily. Not so many 777s.

Delta has started up its new daily flights to Kingston (737) and Leon, Mexico (CRJ900), and second frequency to Guatemala (373/757). Hopefully we can continue to chip away at Latin America with service to a few more cities and a few more frequencies each year.

[Atlwarrior]

Also here's a list of Delta's widebody domestic service for 2014. Look at Atlanta to Salt Lake City. Wow

ATL-SEA: 1x 76W, 2x 332
ATL-SFO: 2x 763
ATL-LAX: 2x 76W, 3x 763, 1x 77L
ATL-SAN: 1x 763
ATL-LAS: 1x 763
ATL-SLC: 4x 763
ATL-DTW: 1x 77L
ATL-MCO: 1x 763
ATL-HNL: 1x 333

[testa50]

Korean Air Reduces Atlanta Service in S14 | Airline Route

As I feared, Korean has decreased service significantly. We're getting downgraded to daily 777-300ER service, with no second daily flight. Then, in summer, we'll start to get the A380 again, first 3x weekly and eventually daily. Sucks, but ultimately I'm happy if we can just have a daily A380 again.

This is no doubt an effect of the massive reduction in codesharing on Delta out of Atlanta. This pushed a ton of traffic onto American via Dallas, or other Delta hubs. If you look up 1-stop itineraries to places like Tampa from Korea, the options are Detroit (Delta) and Dallas (America/Korean). Delta wanted to control the TPAC movement, rather than have it in another airline's hands.

Basically, this is what a realistic market-driven flight to Asia looks like without any connections on the Atlanta end. It's basically Seoul O&D plus China making this work now.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Also here's a list of Delta's widebody domestic service for 2014. Look at Atlanta to Salt Lake City. Wow

ATL-SEA: 1x 76W, 2x 332
ATL-SFO: 2x 763
ATL-LAX: 2x 76W, 3x 763, 1x 77L
ATL-SAN: 1x 763
ATL-LAS: 1x 763
ATL-SLC: 4x 763
ATL-DTW: 1x 77L
ATL-MCO: 1x 763
ATL-HNL: 1x 333

SLC is a terrible airport.