Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON
VALUJET HAS built its main hub at Atlanta Harts-field, and at its peak, the airline represented about 8% of the passenger traffic at the airport, ranking it second only to Delta Air Lines.
With ValuJet flights unavailable, "price-sensitive" customers from Atlanta have been seeking alternative methods of travel. Air South, which offers similar low-fares services to those of ValuJet, has apparently been inundated with calls. Other "no-frills" carriers serving Atlanta include Kiwi International Airlines, Western Pacific and East Wind Airlines. Southwest does not serve Atlanta, although it has now moved into Florida, and observers are waiting to see if the USA's leading low-cost carrier will move into the market.
Delta will be operating some 570 departures a day from its Atlanta hub over its summer season. It says that since ValuJet began scaling back, and then suspended flying, it has not noticed any significant change in its own traffic, but has been experiencing double-digit monthly growth throughout the year. To cater for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Atlanta, Delta has boosted its daily departures by over 25 flights to limit any inconvenience to its hubbing passengers, which represent around 70% of traffic.
Delta says that despite the recent misfortunes of ValuJet, it still intends to launch an Atlanta-based low-cost division later this year.
The operation will initially serve five or six routes, which have not yet been revealed. "A formal launch will be made after the Olympics," says Delta.
Valujet's major hub, at Washington Dulles, will also be affected, where it accounted for over 5 million passengers in 1995.
Other hubs, such as Boston, will be less affected as ValuJet had already been facing a pull-out or cutbacks.
Rivals set to benefit from ValuJet suspension of operations
Source: Flight International
