During Friday’s Delta Air Lines earnings call, the Wall Street Journal‘s Aly Sider asked CEO Ed Bastian if he “think[s] Delta still has the same advantage over rivals just in terms of reliability in its operation?”
Bastian acknowledged that the rest of the industry has caught up.
The one thing that we’ve seen over the last couple of years which has been great for customers is that the overall reliability in the industry has improved and carriers increasingly are competing over operational performance rather than some other things in the past that people may have been focused against. And I think that’s great and I think it pushes us to be even better, and I think it’s a great outcome for the industry as a whole.
It’s great for the industry, but Delta – still most reliable – has seen their lead shrink.
| Rank | Airline | On-Time % | ||
| 1st | Delta Air Lines | 84.72% | ||
| 2nd | Alaska Airlines | 82.25% | ||
| 3rd | American Airlines | 80.61% | ||
| 4th | United Airlines | 80.04% | ||
| 5th | Southwest Airlines | 76.26% | ||
| 6th | Spirit Airlines | 71.16% | ||
| 7th | WestJet | 69.29% | ||
| 8th | Frontier Airlines | 68.68% | ||
| 9th | JetBlue Airways | 68.33% | ||
| 10th | Air Canada | 63.17% |
Bastian says this performance compression “pushes us to be even better” but they aren’t as good an airline or as premium an airline as they were pre-pandemic. And while Bastian says “I still expect Delta to maintain its premium lead in that sector” the size of that lead matters too.
Before the pandemic Delta Air Lines was a meaningfully better airline than its peers.
- It would go months on end without cancelling a mainline flight
- Cabin crew were friendlier
- And there was more investment in the product
Delta went so far as to hot towels and welcome cocktails, along with amenity kits and thank you’s from the staff, in international economy.
The Atlanta-based carrier has had the strongest brand in the U.S. aviation industry. They had the best performance. And they had a strong position at key hubs.
- If you lived in Atlanta or the Upper Midwest, the only viable option for many customers was Delta
- And they’d made sufficient investments in places like New York that they created loyal customers.
Unlike other airlines, they did not need to make the same investments in points programs to keep customers loyal to the airline. They can generate nearly $7 billion from American Express in a year (projected to grow 10% in 2024) despite an intentional strategy of making the SkyMiles program less rewarding than airline peers, according to the program’s Vice President Prashant Sharma.
The Delta SkyMiles strategy is that people choose Delta (for reliability, and other reasons) and once they do they participate in SkyMiles – even though SkyMiles are less valuable than competitor currencies. That model only works if there’s a real Delta Difference. And a narrower margin along which the carrier is most reliable means that difference is not so great.
Which pre-supposes that Delta’s competitors actually improved their maintenance operations versus Delta shooting itself in the foot during the pandemic by dumping its older and best experienced staff.
My money is on the latter.
How could he do that to Timmy?!
There’s a difference between other airlines catching up to Delta and its service “eroding.” But some people have to spin things in negative ways. Better overall performance is better for everyone. Consumers get a better experience, and the carriers make better overall margins. That’s something to celebrate – not berate.
In percentage terms that is 5.01% better than AA.
DELTA=OLD OUTDATED
AIRCRAFT. ITS LIKE PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG.
OLD 717S,757 AND 767.
DELTA PUTS NEW CARPET AND BROKEN VIDEO SCREENS ON OUTDATED AIR RAFT AND PEOPLE THINK ITS NEW, NOT!
AND THE OLD DELTA FAS ARE RETIRING. THE NEW DELTA “FAMILY” IS NOT AS GOOD!
Ghost gets it on this one.
The latest DOT air travel consumer report shows Delta and regionals with a 0.0% rate of cancellations.
Delta is at the head of the pack in terms of cancels and delays. It is good for EVERYONE that the competition is running their operations better.
And despite the fact that the United fanparty shows up to try to trash Delta’s fleet, United’s fleet is more than two years older than Delta’s.
and, unlike Delta, United has 90 aircraft grounded right now.
Despite the incessant posts otherwise, United simply cannot reduce its fleet age faster than Delta unless United simply uses the majority of its new orders for replacement of its 767 and 777-200/ER fleets as well as its hundreds of older A319/320s and 737s.
and government data also shows that Delta still has way fewer consumer complaints than AA and UA. The real story w/ consumer complaints is that WN has come back down so quickly.
It is AA, UA and the ultra low cost carriers that are the butt of jokes regarding customer service.
You need only real Gary’s blog to see the incessant stories about AA customer service failures.
I think it is great. I’ve been loyal to DL and when it’s my choice, they are who I choose. I think Alaska, being very close is not a great comparison. They are a fraction the size of DL, no where near the size or passengers carried that DL has. Sure, they need to stay on top of the game, but, ficus on UA and AA for real qualifying comparisons. Does AS fly to India, Africa, South America or Europe? No, not a fare match up.
@ Tim — Only you could celebrate an airline accident. Pathetic.
You seem to enjoy berating DL.Have you noticed all the awards they accumulated for 2023?
I like Delta. I fly them (and SkyTeam partners) almost exclusively. I think their strategy of owning and using planes for a long time (a commonality with NW) makes a ton of sense.
However, their level of service remains far below what it was five years ago. The aforementioned pre-departure cocktails and towels remain MIA. Catering in general lacks the quality, quantity, and presentation from pre-covid, when First got meals on every flight, and Economy got hot meals on medium-range flights. Plus Sky Clubs shutting out actual Delta frequent flyers.
Gene,
nobody is celebrating an accident.
I am sick and tired of people manipulating known facts and data in order to throw shade at Delta and it heavily comes from the United fan club that can’t stand reality
The simple fact is that United has an older fleet and 90 of their aircraft are grounded right now
Delta’s used 737-900ERs as well as its original build late production 737-900ERs are flying while the MAX 9 is not.
Delta hasn’t put used interiors on any aircraft. They are waiting for new cabin interiors just like United is doing for their massive upgrades including IFE = the target of which they have missed by hundreds of aircraft already.
Once again, Ghost gets it.
and it still comes down to the fact that Delta consistently delivers better customer service but every company has seen deteriorating customer service after the pandemic. Delta is still much better than any other airline including AA and UA according to actual facts and data DL’s consumer complaint ratio is consistently half of AA and UA’s.
btw, Gene,
you do remember that UA ran an ad campaign in Denver after Southwest’s operational meltdown? You think it is ok for an airline to celebrate another airline’s misfortune? As if the CEO didn’t know about that ad campaign.
the reality is that United, driven by its CEO, is the most trash-talking, gutter-dwelling airline in the US right now.
It is ONLY appropriate to be noting that UA has a bunch of airplanes grounded and the impact to UA for the MAX 9 grounding might well be larger than what WN had.
Their service has eroded. Their benefits for DMs have eroded over the years. Ed doesn’t care about loyalty. The service has gotten better, but in 2022 is was absolutely terrible. Last year was a slight improvement. I’m flying to AMS tomorrow in D1, we’ll see how their service has improved from last year
Ha, low cancellations is smoke and mirrors. Delta just delays, sometimes for a day, to avoid a cancellation. There’s a DL plane stuck in Omaha cause it’s frozen to the ramp. My buddy spend two days trying to get home to ATL.
Bastien celebrated Delta’s “junioriority” in one of his stockholder presentations. Major industry problem is too few experienced people around to smooth out the rough patches when they occur.
Airline business is prone to uncontrollable issues and until the new people are up to speed and experience, reliability will suffer.
New workforce is less interested in problem solving than just making it go away regardless of whether it takes care of the customer.
Paul
That is true not only with every other US airline but also in most industries and the US economy. To somehow think it is Delta specific is cherry picking and flame throwing
None of which changes that Delta is still at the top of the industry in multiple metrics even if AA UA andWN have improved their operations but still significantly trail DL and WN in customer service metrics
Agreed that all industries are suffering from the experience gap.
It wasn’t flame throwing at Delta as much as calling out the CEO for unfortunate statements that reflected a lack of understanding of his workforce. .
Paul,
I wasn’t calling you out as the people that commented above you.
I did note that all airlines saw significant retirements and separations during the pandemic.
and, yes, I know that the CEO commented about the cost savings the company would get from a more junior workforce – but that was all before DL agreed to huge pay raises for its pilots and then shared it w/ other employees. Other airlines have done the same thing although DL is the only one of the big 4 that has increased salaries for all employee groups.
The difference is that DL can afford to pay those higher salaries even if their earnings and guidance were less than some on Wall Street expected, in part because of the high increases in labor costs – which also drove over $1 billion in profit sharing for 2023.
None of which changes that Delta is still running a better operation than any other airline both as a combination of on-time, lower cancellation rates, and lower consumer complaints along w/ baggage handling and oversales.
Delta’s service is not as polished as it was pre-pandemic but that is true virtually across the board in the US.
@ Paul — Just remember profit above all else at Premium Airlines!
“Bastian says this performance compression “pushes us to be even better” but they aren’t as good an airline or as premium an airline as they were pre-pandemic.”
Your claim that Delta’s currently reliability isn’t as good as it was pre-pandemic is demonstrably false.
Delta today: 84.7% on-time
Delta 2019: 85.7% on-time
https://www.cirium.com/thoughtcloud/cirium-reveals-worlds-most-on-time-airlines-airports-2019/
Complain about the soft product an SM devaluation all you want. There are valid complaints there. But Delta’s reliability is unchanged, and still the best in North America.
Delta Airlines is far above its North American counterparts. Delta Airlines is just trying harder and it works! Go Delta!
The degradation in reliability and service is a key reason why the response to the original changes in the SkyMiles program was so overwhelmingly negative. Like many other Medallions, I spent way too many time dealing with flight delays and other issues in 2022-23 that just weren’t there in 2019. Asking for people to pay more while they were getting less and less is going to lead people to ponder if the grass might be greener in IAH or CLT as they’re waiting out another flight delay for lack of crew or a maintenance issue in ATL.
Delta blocks their flights longer than other carriers, it’s no wonder why have a better A14 (arrival less than 15 mins late – the DOT measure). Take LGA-DFW I flew recently, Delta block at 4h25m, AA at 4h10 to 4h20, SWA at 4h10 to 4h15 and Spirit at 4h16m. The actual flight took a little over 3 hours plus taxi in and out meant I arrived 45 minutes “early”. Just adding 5 minutes on your block time for every flight your A14 is going to massively improve. I’ve seen the same happen on trains in the UK where I grew up, a journey that used to take 1h35m is now 1h50 to 1h55m. Not surprisingly the “on time” performance increased markedly and suddenly the operator is not fined for failing to meet targets, looks better than the competition and the top dogs get their massive bonuses. Another tactic by airlines recently is to boost their completion factor (i.e reducing cancels) by just delaying flights hours on end instead, even to the next day in some circumstances, by which time many of the passengers have probably rebooked on other flights but the airline can say it completed all it’s schedule
@Chip Bennett – now do completion factor..
Are we moving the goalposts? Okay, well: Delta only trails Hawaiian Airlines in CF. And there’s little room for Delta’s performance to have declined since pre-pandemic: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/most-reliable-airlines
@Chip Bennett – you are clearly moving the goal posts, because now you’re comparing Delta against other airlines rather than against itself which was my argument / the point of the post.
Tom R,
you are correct – but padding schedules costs money because crews are paid for the whole length of the scheduled flight even if the flight arrives early.
DAL has simply found a balance between financial and operational performance that they can use as an advantage.
and AAL is doing far more of the “massive delay to avoid cancellation” thing
2024 will be the start of yet another cycle of restructuring in the US airline industry as a result of the MAX problems and Boeing’s inability (potentially including Spirit) to deliver a safe and reliable product.
Delta has limited exposure to Boeing products and DAL has a solid growth and fleet replacement plan that they can largely execute w/ or w/o Boeing products.
American’s massive refleeting last decade will pay spades for them as they have an in-service fleet of reliable aircraft.
AAL and DAL will continue to dominate the domestic market and have the ability to grow and target market opportunities.
Southwest is a well-run company that knows how to keep their employees financially connected to the company’s success but LUV is way too dependent on Boeing – a huge strategic mistake. Who knows when the MAX 7 will ever get certified. All 737 orders will be delayed but Southwest at least will have MAX 8s that they can rely on. Southwest’s on-time is good until their system is heavily booked. As Gary has noted, WN’s smaller airport hubs are more vulnerable to operational disruptions.
And then United is by far the most vulnerable. Who knows when the MAX 9 will be returned to service and then UA’s strategic plans are built on heavy growth, mostly from Boeing products. United runs a pretty good operation but not having the growth with part of the fleet grounded for weeks at least damages the bottom line.
ALK is highly vulnerable while JBLU still has to figure itself out.
The next 3 years strategically belong to AAL and DAL.
I’m sorry but delta sucks.I had a flight for 915am they moved it to 6am never called,emailed, nothing but about a week before our flight I checked and it was switched.I booked in May for a flight in December.We arrived at the airport at 4 am 2 people showed up at 4:30;to move over 500 people at 5:15 /2 more people showed up we didn’t get to board the plane it took about 7 hours to get another flight 3days later.Delta was a top of the line company in 2013 now you might see a flight attendant 5 times on a 12 and a half flight.Before it was at least every 45 minutes.Do you want a bottle of water some snacks something.Now you ask can I get a bottle of water ooo no we have little cups of water.They did a total nose dive.Defintely not what it used to be
@Gary: the link I posted showed Delta with a flight cancellation percentage of 1.38% (CF 98.62). Like I said: there’s not much room for that number to have declined from pre-pandemic. I didn’t bother to spend much time looking for historic CF, so if you have those data, by all means, share them.
As for moving goalposts: your original claim was that Delta’s operational performance has declined since before the pandemic. My response was, and remains, that I see no data supporting that claim.
@Chip Bennet
My take away from Gary’s article was that they are still not where they were before the pandemic on a number of qualitative factors, not just operational ones.
And he is right. They aren’t. I say that as a Delta fan. It’s been a disappointment.
And just so we are clear 84.7%< 85.7%. Factually, their on time performance is still poorer than 2019.
@Caesonia: sure, there are issues with both the hard and the soft product, and those are valid complaints. I even said that in my first comment. But the premise of the article – the thing on which Bastian was commenting and to which this article responds – is operational performance.
We can agree to disagree regarding whether 84.7 and 85.7 are meaningfully different.