Karen Walker/ATLANTA
DELTA AIRLINES has entered the low-fare market with the launch of Delta Express, a single-class service providing non-stop flights between Florida and cities in the mid-western and north-eastern USA.
Services, using a dedicated fleet of 25 Boeing 737-200s, will begin on 1 October with 62 daily flights. Additional flights will be added by January 1997, to bring the total to 128. Each aircraft will have 119 seats. Passengers will be offered, via an electronic-ticketing reservation system, a simple three-tier fare structure, based on whether seats are purchased at the gate or with either seven or 21 days' notice. Delta says that one-way fares will begin at $19 and average $82.
By providing direct services to cities in Florida from ten northern destinations, including Boston, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington DC, Delta competes with established low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines without infringing on its home-base territory of Atlanta, Georgia. Many of the cities served by Delta Express were served by Atlanta-based ValuJet Airlines until it was forced by the US Federal Aviation Administration to halt operations following the 11 May McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crash.
Skip Barnette, managing director of Delta Express, says that the operation is expected to attract up to 40% of its passengers from business travelers.
Delta chairman Ronald Allen says that the new service will be operated as a separate business unit, with its own image, gates and more casual uniform, but will remain an integral part of Delta. Aircraft will be maintained and serviced by Delta mechanics and flown by Delta pilots.
Source: Flight International
