Airlines Trim International Flights to Avoid 'Big Empty Planes'
 

Delta, AMR Trim Flights to Avoid ‘Big Empty Planes’ (Update2)
By Mary Jane Credeur and Mary Schlangenstein

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines and United Airlines are cutting seats on some routes to London, Tokyo and other overseas business centers by as much as a third in response to plunging international-travel demand.

AMR Corp.’s American chopped seating capacity between Chicago and London’s Heathrow airport by 33 percent, while UAL Corp.’s United cut 25 percent, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of data from schedule-planning service apgDat. Delta dropped a route between Mumbai and New York’s Kennedy airport, and United pared Tokyo-Chicago flying by a third. .................(more)

The complete story is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...7E4CI&refer=us

Uh oh.

I fear this may adversely affect the nice drop in airfares we have all seen in the past couple of months . . . . .

Who can afford to fly on these airlines. They charge for alcohol! Delta charges $7 for a can of beer on their international flights.

The U.S. Airlines should consider upgrading their international product so it is in-line with the other international carriers. When I checked international flights from JFK to Zurich in April, the U.S. airlines are 40% cheaper than the international airlines. Certainly a beer and decent food doesn't cost $400!

Anyone who can afford to travel to Europe can afford another $8 for decent food and drinks.

Furthermore, if one does the math, if the airlines purchased the wine from the vat in Europe, it would be cheaper than the sodas and fruit juices they give for free on the plane which could save the airlines some money.

This is one reason CO is currently offering a sale on BusinessFirst to Europe from EWR and IAH for as little as $899 one way for now through April 17 AND June 28 - Sept 4. They usually don't offer such sales for such a big chunk of the summer this early.

<i>The U.S. Airlines should consider upgrading their international product so it is in-line with the other international carriers.</i>

This ignores the reality that the international carriers are reporting similarly alarming decreases in traffic. BA, for instance, has said that business and first class bookings are down over 20% for the trans-Atlantic market. Air France and Lufthansa have also warned about plunging demand. Singapore Airlines is chopping 11% of capacity due to weak demand. SAS is slashing routes and retrenching to its Nordic home market. It appears that cheap wine isn't enough to drive traffic.