Alaska-Delta "Dogfight" heats up @ Sea-Tac in Seattle
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SEATTLE (TheStreet) -- In its battle with Delta , Alaska has stepped it up a notch, adding three Delta cities to its network.
An announcement of new routes from Seattle to Detroit, New Orleans and Tampa represents Alaska's latest response to Delta's plan to build a new Seattle hub, competing with Alaska's existing Seattle hub.
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Delta announced Monday that in December it will add nine new flights to five cities, including five daily departures to Phoenix; daily seasonal service to Palm Springs; Saturday seasonal service to Tucson and Jackson Hole; and an additional daily flight to Honolulu. Also in September, Delta will add an additional daily Anchorage flight.
Meh. This is nothing new. The airlines have been pulling stunts like this for decades. If history is any guide, Delta will end up leaving. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, every airline that attempted to invade a competitors turf, the incumbent airline always ended up being the victor. Delta lost to American in Dallas, TWA lost to Delta in Atlanta, Midway lost to USAir in Philly, Continental and Frontier both got their butts kicked in Los Angeles, American crumbled against Southwest at San Jose, Northwest backed off to Reno Air when Northwest invaded Reno, and so on and so forth.
So the airline industry cannot survive open competition for customers. So they control access to flights and prices to and from the hubs. Good business but it is not capitalism.
Meh. This is nothing new. The airlines have been pulling stunts like this for decades. If history is any guide, Delta will end up leaving. With the exception of Southwest Airlines, every airline that attempted to invade a competitors turf, the incumbent airline always ended up being the victor. Delta lost to American in Dallas, TWA lost to Delta in Atlanta, Midway lost to USAir in Philly, Continental and Frontier both got their butts kicked in Los Angeles, American crumbled against Southwest at San Jose, Northwest backed off to Reno Air when Northwest invaded Reno, and so on and so forth.
But this is a David-Goliath contest, especially when one considers this isn't just a regional carrier vs a carrier with a national network, but of course Delta is also intercontinental and has introduced Seattle flights to Asian destinations. I don't think Alaska has anything international beyond North America and Delta badly wants a hub
in the US to Asia, so this is going to be tough going for Alaska IMO.
Delta HAD a strong presence at both Los Angeles (LAX) and Portland (PDX) in years past with substantial feed and O/D hub traffic as well. The former was a hub inherited from Western Airlines, not to mention transpacific services that Northwest once operated. And yet they abandoned both hubs. What makes them think it will work this time in SeaTac? The David-Goliath comparison alone doesn't dictate the outcome, or even the odds of the outcome. Look at how Southwest succeeded in chasing both American *AND* USAir out of the California market back in the early 90's when they were still just a regional airline.
Alaska has stuck with its tried and true formula in the Northwest for decades now and my money is that even though Delta will try, in the end, they will either have to buy them out or will leave with their tail between their legs.
Delta HAD Look at how Southwest succeeded in chasing both American *AND* USAir out of the California market back in the early 90's when they were still just a regional airline.
No international component at work in the intra-California competition.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Des-Lab
Alaska has stuck with its tried and true formula in the Northwest for decades now and my money is that even though Delta will try, in the end, they will either have to buy them out or will leave with their tail between their legs.
Delta turning up the heat to try to fill their planes and build customer loyalty in Seattle. Seattle based fliers get twice as many miles for each flight.
“Book and fly Delta or Delta Connection®-marketed and -operated flights from Seattle (SEA) by December 31, 2014, and we’ll award you double miles and double Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) on the nonstop segment out of or into Seattle (SEA). The more you fly the more you earn—it’s unlimited!”
I personally think it's great that DL is trying to push for a true west coast gateway without affecting the flow of the SLC hub. You can bet the metal they are expanding SEA with is coming from the former MEM hub
I also think that if DL and AS sever ties then so be it. Alaska doesn't bring much to the table. Sort of like how Continental was irrelevant before merger with United. Now CO managment has UA's network to play with
Quote:
Originally Posted by Des-Lab
Delta HAD a strong presence at both Los Angeles (LAX) and Portland (PDX) in years past with substantial feed and O/D hub traffic as well. The former was a hub inherited from Western Airlines, not to mention transpacific services that Northwest once operated. And yet they abandoned both hubs. What makes them think it will work this time in SeaTac? The David-Goliath comparison alone doesn't dictate the outcome, or even the odds of the outcome. Look at how Southwest succeeded in chasing both American *AND* USAir out of the California market back in the early 90's when they were still just a regional airline.
Alaska has stuck with its tried and true formula in the Northwest for decades now and my money is that even though Delta will try, in the end, they will either have to buy them out or will leave with their tail between their legs.
Very true. DL started ATL-PDX-NRT-Seoul in 1988 I believe. They grew PDX to a point up until 2001.
Although interesting to note that DL has built up and down LAX several times in the last 27 years since the WA merger. They finally are trying to do it again to compete with UA and AA.
I personally think it's great that DL is trying to push for a true west coast gateway without affecting the flow of the SLC hub. You can bet the metal they are expanding SEA with is coming from the former MEM hub
But I'd think a continuing expansion @ SEA will eventually start to come at the expense of the SLC hub.
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