Atlanta Airport - Airline Service & Routes Updates Thread (Kingston: live, versus)

[Adric]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

I'm thinking there should be a Delta service from ATL to Tokyo's Haneda Airport. JAL could also bring back their Atlanta-Tokyo/Narita route.

Haneda is much more convenient to Tokyo than Narita but it mostly serves domestic Japanese flights with a few international sprinkled in here an there. Narita is Japan's main gateway to the rest of the world but it's so far from the city! It can take a good chunk of the day just getting from the airport to your destination in the city. Nonstop from Atlanta to Haneda would be a dream come true!

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Adric

Haneda is much more convenient to Tokyo than Narita but it mostly serves domestic Japanese flights with a few international sprinkled in here an there. Narita is Japan's main gateway to the rest of the world but it's so far from the city! It can take a good chunk of the day just getting from the airport to your destination in the city. Nonstop from Atlanta to Haneda would be a dream come true!

Supposedly Delta is angling for most/all of its Japan service to move over to HND, which requires a lot of posturing with the Japanese government. And, given the amount of overfly service they have started up (they just announced SEA-ICN and SEA-HKG), they would seem to have some leverage: a big Delta hub operation in Japan is no longer set in stone. From HND, Delta could try to forge a domestic partnership and be a dominant player in Japan, but without it they will probably slash service. Definitely a turning point moment in Japan for Delta.

I'd love to see ATL-HND. It would become the go-to for anyone flying from the southeast into Tokyo, given the convenience of the airport.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by testa50

It makes no sense to me why they wouldn't replace weekly 10x 777 with 7x 380, as the capacities are very similar and running a second, non-daily frequency is usually suboptimal.

But I just looked up schedules for March and it looks like we have daily A380 service and 3x weekly 777-200 service open for reservation.

By my counts, 7x A380 service is 2,849 seats per week, while the current mix of 7x 777-300 and 3x 777-200 is 2,820 seats per week. Seems perfect. Keeping the 777-200 flying 3x a week adds another 783 seats for a new total of 3,632. An upgauge of 20% compared with the status quo, which is really, really good if it is what ends up happening. I'd love to see daily 777 service in addition to the A380 service (or, in a perfect world, Asiana entering the market, which seems less likely).

Thanks for the update, I tried looking at Korean Air site, but it was shut down. That makes perfect sense.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by testa50

It makes no sense to me why they wouldn't replace weekly 10x 777 with 7x 380, as the capacities are very similar and running a second, non-daily frequency is usually suboptimal.

But I just looked up schedules for March and it looks like we have daily A380 service and 3x weekly 777-200 service open for reservation.

By my counts, 7x A380 service is 2,849 seats per week, while the current mix of 7x 777-300 and 3x 777-200 is 2,820 seats per week. Seems perfect. Keeping the 777-200 flying 3x a week adds another 783 seats for a new total of 3,632. An upgauge of 20% compared with the status quo, which is really, really good if it is what ends up happening. I'd love to see daily 777 service in addition to the A380 service (or, in a perfect world, Asiana entering the market, which seems less likely).

I wonder if Air France will upgauge Atlanta to Paris to A380 one day also.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

I wonder if Air France will upgauge Atlanta to Paris to A380 one day also.

I'd love to see it, but I think it is unlikely.

The distance is smaller than most routes with an A-380.

I'd also spot out that both airports are skyteam hubs. Delta/Air France probably benefit from having more flight options throughout the day.

I think there are usually 4+ flights a day between the two cities from Delta and Air France combined. With an A-380 it would be.....2 decreasing access to various connections.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I'd love to see it, but I think it is unlikely.

The distance is smaller than most routes with an A-380.

I'd also spot out that both airports are skyteam hubs. Delta/Air France probably benefit from having more flight options throughout the day.

I think there are usually 4+ flights a day between the two cities from Delta and Air France combined. With an A-380 it would be.....2 decreasing access to various connections.

That make perfect sense.

[testa50]

Delta just announced a bunch of new flights, including a couple from Atlanta:

- Daily nonstop from Atlanta to Leon, Mexico on CRJ900 regional jets. Nice service to a medium-sized Mexican city.
- Weekly service from Atlanta to Palm Springs, California on a 737-800. Delta has flirted with other ways to serve Southern California (including a planned flight to Ontario that never materialized), so I guess this is just another idea they have.

DELTA W13 North/Central America New Routes Summary | Airline Route – Worldwide Airline Route Updates

On the bad news front, Delta and Korean canceled most of their codesharing out of Atlanta. Hopefully this doesn't impact the long-term success of the A380.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by testa50

Delta just announced a bunch of new flights, including a couple from Atlanta:

- Daily nonstop from Atlanta to Leon, Mexico on CRJ900 regional jets. Nice service to a medium-sized Mexican city.
- Weekly service from Atlanta to Palm Springs, California on a 737-800. Delta has flirted with other ways to serve Southern California (including a planned flight to Ontario that never materialized), so I guess this is just another idea they have.

DELTA W13 North/Central America New Routes Summary | Airline Route – Worldwide Airline Route Updates

On the bad news front, Delta and Korean canceled most of their codesharing out of Atlanta. Hopefully this doesn't impact the long-term success of the A380.

Oh boy that would be awful, but Korean and Delta did reinstate some codesharing routes out of LAX per Airline Route update link below. I also notice mid Sept. Korean has stopped the Atlanta A380 and moved it to JFK, and also upgauge the 777-200 to 777-300 from DFW. I wonder what happen with the partnership.

http://airlineroute.net/2013/09/06/d...deshare-sep13/

[Atlwarrior]

Another win for Atlanta Based Delta venture with London England based Virgin Atlantic. They received full approval from US DOT to fully implement their joint venture partnership. That means more connection through London Heathrow for Atlantans. It would be lovely to one day see Virgin Atlantic start service to Atlanta also.

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways Welcome U.S. Department of Transportation decision to grant Antitrust Immunity - Yahoo Finance

[Atlwarrior]

United adds SFO-ATL again starting April 2014


SFO - ATL - SFO on UA is resuming effective April 1st 2014 eastbound and April 2nd 2014 westbound. Flights are now loaded and bookable on united.com.
SFO - ATL - SFO flights will use 737-800 aircraft.

I figured this would make a comeback sooner or later. Atlanta was the largest domestic market without nonstop UA service to SFO. That unfortunate distinction now goes to Detroit, and as such I wouldn't be surprised to see UA break the DL monopoly by adding SFO-DTW sometime soon. In fact, the Detroit metropolitan area is almost twice as populous as the Tampa Bay Area, now the second largest domestic market unserved from UA's burgeoning Pacific hub at SFO. In addition to DTW and TPA, I wouldn't be surprised if UA is considering a resumption of BDL, or new flights to BNA, CLT, CMH, or OMA (UAX/CR7) from SFO.

Anyhow, back on the subject of UA's SFO-ATL. I think there may be a few competitive factors to consider as well:

1) O&D travelers may forget/not know to check southwest.com, and once the FL flights are gone, UA will be that only other/non-DL option on those popular travel sites...

2) Devolving DL/KE relationship reducing SkyTeam attractiveness/options for Atlanta-Asia traffic, UA can capitalize on this issue...

3) Preempt VX addition of SFO-ATL. One can logically assume that Atlanta (and Houston) is on that carrier's shortlist for future expansion...