Delta is extending its West Coast Shuttle product to Seattle. (Image: Jim Glab)
Faced with a stronger West Coast competitor as Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and San Francisco-based Virgin America move toward a merger, Delta Air Lines is making a pre-emptive strike on the coastal market this week by extending its Shuttle product to Seattle.
Three years ago, the airline introduced Delta Shuttle service between Los Angeles International and San Francisco International, and starting on Wednesday (May 11), it will bring that concept to the Seattle-SFO and Seattle-LAX markets.
It won’t have much immediate impact on schedules – Delta currently operates eight flights a day in both markets – although the company did say it plans to expand its LAX-Seattle schedule to 10 daily roundtrips on weekdays starting May 23.
But it will bring a host of standardized extra services and amenities to those routes clearly aimed at capturing a bigger share of business travelers. Here’s Delta’s list of the Shuttle features it is introducing for SEA-LAX/SFO flights:
- Dedicated check-in counters exclusively for Delta Shuttle customers
- Gates located near security
- Complimentary newspapers for all customers including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Financial Times
- Assigned seating
- Two classes of service with complimentary upgrades for SkyMiles Medallion members when available
- Complimentary meals in First Class on all flights
- Complimentary Luvo snack box offered in Comfort+ on all flights
- Complimentary onboard snacks provided by Nourish Snacks in the main cabin
- Complimentary in-flight beer, wine, spirits and other beverages in all classes of service, including Lagunitas Brewing Company and Fremont Brewing Company craft beer and Starbucks coffee
- Access to in-flight Wi-Fi and free entertainment options through Delta Studio
- Convenient access to the new Delta Sky Club set to open in Fall 2016 (at SEA) on Concourse A
Delta will use a mix of 737-800 and 717s on the SEA-LAX route, and two-class E175s operated by Compass Airlines on the SEA-SFO route.
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Ok, you say that DL’s desire to merge with AS was “reported numerous places” in this blog. Fine. Go ahead and point me to one post that says DL wants to merge with AS. Careful now, I’m not interested in speculation, guesses, rumors, what-ifs, if-only’s or any other nonsense. I deal only with facts (and I don’t mean facts that you invent). You do that, and I’ll go back and read your entire comment
Kirk, if you think I’m “making up facts” you need to read this blog more often. The merger story was reported numerous places.
As for not reading past the first paragraph…well…you just made my point….
I didn’t read past your first full paragraph because you continue inventing your own facts. DL has never said that they want to merge with AS. That’s your invention. I love a good debate, but not with someone that makes up facts as they go.
Kirk, you aren’t trying to change the subject are you?
Delta’s assault on Seattle has been an abject failure. They planned to bury Alaska will artificially low fares and then merge with them. That way they got the connecting flight slots at other airports and a very nice terminal.
Instead, West Coast travelers weren’t really interested, and the DOJ wasn’t convinced that an airline that big would allow market competition. So Delta dug in , and tried to bleed AS any way it could: even trying to force Alaska to subsidize DL’s new international terminal with its own landing fees.
So now we are in a war of attrition, which flies in the face of the West Coast’s demographics. Seattle isn’t nearly as diverse as California’s melting point. Most Washington residents do not fly overseas to visit relatives. But they also don’t spend much time in Georgia either. And that is kind of a problem, given that Seattle is an even longer flight to Atlanta than SF or LA. You even admitted itself yourself, Delta picked Seattle because he was the path of least resistance…
I’ll close though, with a point I made in another post: The “too-big-to-fail” airlines (Delta, American, United) continue to pursue Asia without acknowledging that the TPP will cause American carriers to shed even more routes to state-sponsored Asian airlines so that there is a healthy market for US aircraft.
China, (by being outside the treaty) is the exception.
Kirk, you aren’t trying to change the subject are you? ?
Delta’s assault on Seattle has been a total failure. They assumed that their heavy artillery would force Alaska to merge with them. They wanted to inherit Alaska’s routes, not create their own.
The DOJ, however, was cool to an airline that big, so Delta dug in for a war of attrition, even trying to force Alaska to pay some of the cost for Delta’s new international terminal through landing fees.
But no matter how many millions Delta pours into Seattle, it can’t change the demographics of the West Coast. Seattle is still mostly white, where most people’s relatives aren’t flying over oceans to get there. SF and LA are true melting pots which is the real key to demand for international travel . But even if that was true, who the heck wants to fly an extra hour to get home because of how far Seattle is from Atlanta??? Delta picked Seattle because it was the path of least resistance.
But the biggest mystery is why Delta would want international expansion on the verge of the TPP being signed.. Every new route to Asia excluding China is going to be taken over by Asian flag carriers who are going to buy new aircraft from Boeing.
Tom, you don’t get to make up facts to suit your argument. There are absolutely no facts to support your “failed hub” claim. DL is ahead of schedule on its Seatle build-up. They currently operate 120 daily flights from Seattle to 44 cities and are continuing to ramp up (2 months from now it will be up to 152 daily flights with several new cities coming online). The 2nd Skyclub is opening shortly and the new International arrivals facility is under construction so that DL can add more international flights. In DL’s most recent investors meeting, they stated the Seattle hub was the 4th most profitable hub in their network, and the fastest growing hub in their network.
As for your confusion about why they chose Seattle. 3 reasons: 1) Geography: It’s the closest continental US city to Asia. 2) Reality: LAX is slot controlled (it wouldn’t be possible to grow significantly there) and SFO is a UA fortress hub. 3) DL’s international flights took advantage of AS codeshare feeder flights while DL gradually builds up its own feeder network at Seattle
Kirk,
Delta is primarily doing this as window dressing after the failure to establish Seattle as their West Coast hub. While Delta did gain “considerable market share” by adding the “shuttle”, it came almost exclusively at the expense of Compass Air and to a less extent, Southwest. Virgin’s, United’s, and American’s market share has stayed more or less intact. It IS impressive to see SFO to LAX being so competitive again…I remember the days a decade ago where Southwest was almost the only game in town.
Delta’s executives, meanwhile, don’t seem to understand that most international travel from the West Coast is based on family ties, not business. As Korean Air is SkyTeam’s largest Asian member (and Atlanta is Delta’s biggest hub), it’s mystifying why they would establish themselves in Seattle except for the fact that neither American or United had a large presence there and Alaska doesn’t fly overseas.
I will take the Delta security lines at LAX terminal 5 any day over their security lines in ATL. Regular security lines were 50+ minutes last night at 8pm. Thank goodness for pre-check, but those lines approach 30 minutes on a Monday morning.
I am not whining about Delta I seen this picture before. I was simply saying that this model has been done before on the east coast. I also understand the “growth ” of their hub in the NW with feeder flights. I met the DC to NY or BOS shuttle service NOT Seattle to NY pls.
What are you talking about? You must be one of those people who is still whining about DL coming in and competing in SEA. DL’s not gonna back out of that, so get it over already.
DL isn’t trying an east coast shuttle (have you ever looked at a map, Seattle and New York are pretty far apart)
DL’s LAX-SFO shuttle is quite popular, they’ve increased service from 5x daily to 12x daily and they’ve taken considerable market share from other airlines in doing so. Now they’re gonna try and extend that success to these 2 new routes, while continuing to build their new hub in SEA
I’m just wondering where Delta is getting the landing slots in LA. Won’t they have to drop or diminish service from elsewhere to pull this off?
same old thing just different lipstick. They are trying to do an east coast NY shuttle service. Remember this has been done many different times out west as well. I think the series west coast flyer’s are all about AS and Virgin viewing them as one of them not DL the big bad wolf !! Just saying