Delta’s reliability problems are showing up where they can least afford them: New York–Los Angeles, the premium transcon route packed with business travelers and high-profile customers. An internal note to pilots asks them to help make up for increased delays and plunging net promoter scores among customers by making extra efforts at communication during disruptions.
The airline’s reliability has taken a huge hit and executives expect their problem with cascading cancellations to last through the summer, though they do have a plan intended to address it over the longer term.
It seems, though, that their reliability issues are especially acute flying between New York and Los Angeles, and aviation watchdog JonNYC reports on some of the specifics based on a note sent to pilots who operate equipment used on the route.
- Problems on New York JFK – Los Angeles get outsized attention due to “a significant presence of high-profile customers, business travelers, and social media influencers. Customer experiences on these flights are often shared widely and in real time”
- Reliability has been uniquely a problem on this route, “this route operates at a higher risk for delays compared to much of the domestic network”
- It’s taking a toll on customer perceptions of Delta: “Customer experience on JFK–LAX currently runs 9.2 points below the mainline domestic NPS.. LAX-JFK currently runs 12.7 points below.”
As a result, pilots are being asked to make extra efforts to communicate with passengers during delays to make up for the airline’s troubles:
The best way our pilots can help is simple: Remain focused, as you always are, on Delta’s Impactful Behaviors – Greet Me, Recognize Me, Be Kind to Me and Inform Me – to ensure every customer interaction is kind, attentive, appreciative, and informative. In particular, it’s proven that our NPS scores improve significantly during a service disruption or delay when our pilots provide timely updates and engage positively with our customers.
Delta
This is out there, not authenticated in any way at this juncture. I tend to -assume- that at the very least it’s patched together from some stuff. Always a chance it’s fake.“Team,
We’d like to take a moment to talk about JFK–LAX and LAX-JFK – two of the most…
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 28, 2026
There’s no more important airline route in the U.S. than New York – Los Angeles. Based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics DB1B data (a quarterly 10% ticket sample before July 2025, now monthly at a 40% sample) and using the four most recent quarters available which are Q2 2024 through Q1 2025, annual revenue numbers by airline in the New York JFK – Los Angeles market are:
| Rank | Airline | Market | Revenue | |||
| 1 | United | Newark – San Francisco | $493 million | |||
| 2 | Delta | New York JFK – Los Angeles | $449 million | |||
| 3 | United | Newark – Los Angeles | $384 million | |||
| 4 | JetBlue | New York JFK – Los Angeles | $280 million | |||
| 5 | Delta | New York JFK – San Francisco | $252 million | |||
| 6 | American | New York JFK – Los Angeles | $220 million |
New York JFK – Los Angeles is the most heavily flown U.S. route by seats, with 3.43 million seats in 2025 (up 9% over 2024, but still 20% below 2019).
Delta dominates on New York JFK – Los Angeles even without materially more flights than competitors. That’s a function of running larger aircraft, generating higher corporate share, and earning higher premium ticket purchases. Before US Airways management took over, American dominated the corporate market in Los Angeles. Delta gained its foothold in the New York market in some measure because US Airways management was willing to sell them their LaGuardia operation.
Ironically, Delta has an uncompetitive inflight product (although United still has the least-functional wifi, until the Starlink rollout is complete). Their New York JFK Delta One lounge is very good if you visit in the morning or early afternooon – late afternoon/evening departures find it overrun. So their product isn’t actually driving this, although their reputation for product as well as reliability is.
United, though, dominates the Bay Area business and has a very strong presence on both ends of these routes in both Newark and Los Angeles as well.
Ultimately, the New York and Los Angeles markets aren’t just important because they attract lots of premium passengers. They are crucial to earning corporate business in both locations. And they are among the top credit card spending markets in the U.S. Linking the two together and performing badly puts the performance of Delta’s American Express co-brand product in jeopardy.
Customers who defect to a competitor take their credit card spend with them – and that deal represents $8 billion in annual revenue.
Didn’t realize the Delta operation deteriorated this much, thanks for the details. And the product is not an advantage; poorer catering, Thompson no advantage seats.
Now Delta transcon schedules are vapor ware as well.
UNITED rising
Can’t wait to see Tim offer his whole-hearted defense on how Delta’s 767s are the definition of Premium with their 14-year-old state of the art product that is only surpassed by their IFE Experience on some of the older 737-800s that feature a screen smaller than the size of my iPhone 17!
Delta only has an uncompetitive product if you compare the actual aircraft, seats and service versus its endless forward-looking promotional material. The disconnect between the expectations and the actual experience is sizable. Had Boeing developed a NextGen (stretched) 757 DAL could have dominated the route and not conceded it to United.
Wise 1990s philosophers Beavis and Butt-head once said “you’ve gotta have stuff the sucks to have stuff that’s cool”
That is what Georgia Klan Air is doing here; running stuff that sucks so you can realise how cool they are.
@Jim LeJeune gets it. Those wise 1990s philosophers also appreciated their ‘slots’…
Where Delta is also failing is RUCs… JFK-LAX/SFO in D1 from Main on 763 or from PS on 764 used to be regularly available. No more.
DL has addressed the operational reliability issues. Data lags.
While UA’s operations at EWR, ORD and SFO meltdown this summer due to weather storms, DL will more than recover.
and it is most notable that DL is larger in the LAX transcon market than UA.
This memo isn’t about operational reliability. It is about the recognition that DL will fight tooth and nail to maintain its position and grow in the transcons
oh, and DL carries the most TCON revenue from JFK using those 767s and now 330s. all the coastliners that UA wants to throw at JFK or any other transcon market won’t do anything to get that transcon cargo revenue
@Tim Dunn — You workin’ late, or in a different time zone?
I remember when AA ruled the sky in the transcon market with the B747 and DC10. It is a shame since Paker and the USAIR guys took over AA is at the bottom of airline ratings.
Turns out UA doesn’t need those JFK gates after all. Instead, they are crushing Delta from all the way over in EWR. Nice to see UA regain its rightful position as #1 airline in America, while Delta brings passengers to RUH, where it turns out, maybe not so many people want to transit from the US.
Bad product up front. Frequent delays. A terminal that isn’t competitive, pleasant, or near the level of the next gen facilities at JFK emerging. Old planes.
@Tim Dunn exactly how high are you with that statement? DL’s operational performance is in the toilet…and it’s getting worse. Just take a look at high-frequency mainline routes like ATL-MCO or FLL and look at their recent operational reliability. On most days more than half of their flights are delayed…even on days when there is no weather and no reason.
Meanwhile, DL’s own leadership says this will not be fixed until after summer and you sit here and claim everything is fine. You. Have. No. Credibility. Here.
So, you can sit around and claim “anecdotes” and gaslight us to think things are fine at DL…but they are not. And, if DL’s senior leadership operated with the same hubris you do it’s not wonder the airline is in an operational tailspin. DL’s summer theme is “charge you more, but offer you less.”
Personally, after watching the operational performance of FLL-ATL-FLL over the past three weeks (I look every day) I have decided to move all business away from DL for the summer unless I am taking an early AM flight. You may be happy to endure delays, but this 2MM DM is not. I’ve got sh!t to do.
Delta is as premium as Southwest is a discount airline.
“While UA’s operations at EWR, ORD and SFO meltdown this summer due to weather storms, DL will more than recover.”
– Delta doesn’t need to have storms to meltdown. Their internal memos admit as much, and say disruptions (due to the pilot contract) will continue through the summer before it’s fixed. SFO doesn’t get “storms” in the summer – that is a winter phenomena, and the potential summer disruptions there from the marine layer (the summer weather pattern, which has already started) is actually being prevented by the schedule reductions due to the runway reconstruction. That has actually helped United’s schedule reliability, not hurt it. EWR storm disruptions? If EWR is getting hit, so is LGA and JFK, so those Delta operations will be equally impacted. And the probability of a storm system hitting ORD isn’t much different than one hitting ATL. Delta has a higher concentration of flights in ATL than United has in ORD. It can take United a day to recover, but Delta several, if the past is any indication of what we can expect over the next few months.
“and it is most notable that DL is larger in the LAX transcon market than UA”
– True. Because you cherry-picked from the article’s list, and basically told us, “Number 2 is higher than Number 3!” to only look at LAX…while ignoring what was #1 on the list. You might as well have said, “DL is larger in the LAX-ATL market than everyone else!” If you really wanted to be honest and accurate about the NY-“West Coast” premium market – the focus of this article – you’d add up ALL of the numbers in that chart, and get this:
United, West Coast NY market: $877 Million
Delta, West Coast NY market: $701 Million
“all the coastliners that UA wants to throw at JFK or any other transcon market won’t do anything to get that transcon cargo revenue”
– You can (and have) argued that New York City passengers don’t want to go to EWR and prefer JFK. That is certainly true for some people. But cargo doesn’t care which airport it is routed through. And United is operating 777s and 787s between SFO/LAX and EWR. I think their cargo capabilities between the coasts is more than adequate, as evidenced by the market share numbers above. Besides, the coastliners are replacing the 757-200s (which are just over half of the United flights between LAX/SFO to EWR). The widebodies used for the other flights will do just fine flying cargo.
1990
you do realize it is called the worldwide web?
and, yes, I do travel and there are 24 time zones.
first, let’s make perfectly clear that Gary copied as the truth something that even Jon said cannot be verified as the truth.
That should tell anyone that is remotely interested in the truth to consider this memo suspect.
and second, the memo actually says that on-time is NOT the problem. It is a customer service issue
and third, just because DL admits that its transcon service has lower NPS doesn’t mean that other airlines are not seeing the same thing – even if they don’t admit it.
and DL’s on-time and cancellation rates are far better than even 2 months ago. There is enormous data lags and even the couple percent difference in on-time and cancellation rates were blown way out of proportion.
DL is rallying its troops to deliver a better experience but anyone that thinks that there isn’t just as large of a problem at other airlines is kidding themselves.
@Tim Dunn – when Jon posted this it was not confirmed. It is now confirmed.
@Tim Dunn. There are actually 38 time zones, but why would you start to care about facts.
@Matt you beat me to it.
“DL has addressed the operational reliability issues. Data lags.”
Queen sTD, so if data lags, how would you know if it’s improved? Do you now have access to internal ops data from Delta? 😉
“@Tim Dunn – when Jon posted this it was not confirmed. It is now confirmed.”
Gary with the solid burns today.
Your move Queen sTD, what’s your new excuse? Clearly, “This probably isn’t a real note” is out the window now
Gary,
then you should be able to post the actual memo.
but you still don’t grasp that the memo specifically said on-time is NOT the issue. You wanna fix your white lie?
mini brain,
do you seriously think that there aren’t publicly available flight trackers?
DL’s on-time and cancellation rate for this week is better than AA, UA and WN
The only burn is from you finding out that you are reading yesterday’s newspaper
Spectrum Boy,
There are more than 24 timezones, many more, so standard factual fail on your part, per normal.
From this memo, to the Inc. Magazine article on DL’s woes, to a follow-up AJC on buffoonery at ATL, you are just having another bad week.
But your dad’s employer will survive, even with all the standard, true, bad news.
And here we sit onboard at LGA waiting to go. “Early departure” has now turned into a delay. Zero communication from the staff/pilots, etc. Delta is not ready to go. Everything else is running on time here today basically. These are not anecdotes. Increasingly common trend for me over the last few years. Tim can say whatever it wants. The Delta experience is not good and it’s getting worse.
As I’m pushing the post button, the FO just told us the captain is delayed. I got here on time. So did 130 other people.
-Diamond
the earth is divided into 24 equidistant time zones; there are certainly countries including India, Pakistan and Nepal that choose to subdivide and split the difference between those 24 time zones.
The real issue is that there are a handful of mental midgets including the operator of this site that thinks they win by arguing how wrong they are.
DL, like every other airline, has operational highs and lows.
DL’s operation was far more hard hit by CrowdStrike and yet DL ended up as the most reliable of the big 4 in 2024.
there are people that desperately want to see DL fall off its pedestal and yet there is no risk that will happen.
DL has figured out how to fix the pilot staffing issue that cost them far less in on-time and cancellation rates than UA’s perpetual baggage mishandling, B6′ gross inability to manage its operation or AA’s persistant delays.
DL’s on-time TODAY as of right now is better than any of the other big 4 carriers.
jumping on the internet to highlight that the flight you are on is late doesn’t change the fact that DL is, once again, running a best in class operation regardless if the media is still reporting 2 month old data that was no more than 2% below industry best.
i’m a delta loyal tim. i desperately want to see delta get back to the outstanding outperformance that drove my loyalty and advocacy. you seem to want to rip everybody including deltas best customers. if your job is to bolster deltas standing in the socials, your comment above today is not helping. i agree with a lot of what you post. thanks for the ding above
No Spectrum Boy, there are ~40 timezones. The 24 equidistant divisions are not standardised, but hey you kept trying, you fail every other time too kid.
And, Georgia Klan Air, just got another EEOC racial complaint filed today. Leading the charge in IT delays, meltdowns, buffoonery, and racism…Spectrum Boy’s favourite airline!
@ Tim — Your basement covers 24 tme zones. Impressive.
TD: “You wanna fix your white lie?”
HAHAHA! TD wants OTHER people to correct THEIR inaccuracies!
Hello, kettle – I’m a black pot!
@Tim Dunn — Regardless of which time zone you are in, hope it’s somewhere nice!
sunrises over the ocean are spectacular in any one of the natural 24 time zones – which is what you get when you divide the round earth into 24 hours.
and I didn’t rely on a United 777 to get me here because there is just too much at stake to risk them looking far and wide for a plane with 2 working Pratt engines
And yet in 2026 you have a 44% greater chance of your Delta flight being cancelled and are more likely to be late.
No Spectrum Boy, you have a math and geography problem….but what is new kid. You also have a DL problem with all the negative media and meltdowns lately. My own DL flight last night was delayed an hour due to missing crew. Just sad. And when the local paper turns on you, you know it s bad. And you never have an answer for them leading all other airlines in EEOC complaints. Sad but entertaining boy!
I get how much so many people want the king of the hill to fall off their pedestal but there is no serious threat to that happening
Tim, looks like I gotta keep repeating this. You either have not seen it, or choose to ignore it. Regardless of which reason you don’t address it, Delta is not the “King of the Hill” and if they were, they have already been knocked off their pedestal.
Here are the most recent operational metrics – 1st quarter (January through March, 2026) for the US airlines. Note how Delta isn’t the King of the Hill at all:
– On-time Arrivals / entire branded network (including express carriers)
1 – Alaska, 79.64%
2 – Southwest, 78.39%
3 – United, 77.91%
4 – Delta, 76.74%
– On-time Arrivals / major, mainline carriers only (removing “Express” data)
1 – United, 79.96%
2 – Southwest, 78.39%
3 – Delta, 78.27%
– Cancellation rate / entire branded network (including express carriers)
1 – Allegiant, 1.57% cancelled
2 – Southwest, 1.73% cancelled
3 – Alaska, 1.85% cancelled
4 – United, 2.57% cancelled
5 – Frontier, 2.78% cancelled
6 – Delta, 3.70% cancelled
– Cancellation rate / all airlines (i.e. all “Skywest” as one operation)
1 – Allegiant, 1.57% cancelled
2 – Alaska, 1.71% cancelled
3 – Southwest, 1.73% cancelled
4 – United, 1.82% cancelled
5 – Skywest, 2.75% cancelled
6 – Frontier, 2.78% cancelled
7 – Envoy, 2.95% cancelled
8 – Delta, 3.23% cancelled
– Long Tarmac Delays (over 3 hours, on the ground, waiting on the plane)
From January thru March of 2026, there were 173 incidents of planes waiting on the ground in excess of 3 hours before deplaning was offered. From fewest flights reported to most flights (all branded flights):
1st: Breeze / Spirit (tied for 1st), 1 flight each
3rd: Allegiant / 2 flights
4th: Southwest / 5 flights
5th: JetBlue / 8 flights
6th: Alaska / 9 flights
7th: American / 16 flights
8th: United / 42 flights
9th: Delta / 89 flights
Even taking out the “express” flights, and only looking at mainline operations, Delta still lags the other three large US carriers:
1st: Southwest, 5 flights
2nd: American, 9 flights
3rd: United, 31 flights
4th: Delta, 59 flights
– Consumer Complaints, “Big 4” US airlines:
1st: Southwest, 592 complaints
2nd: United, 2309 complaints
3rd: Delta, 2320 complaints
4th: American, 4958 complaints
The only think Delta is “King” at recently is using their high profits to benefit shareholders instead of investing in improving the operation.
more cherrypicked statistics from someone that can’t stand to admit that DL is really not that bad and UA is really not that good.
the difference in DL and UA’s ontime and cancellation rates – but the difference in baggage mishandling – which you didn’t bother to list – is an 80% rate difference.
and even complaints are related to the size of passengers carried – and DL carries far more passengers than UA does – perhaps the little pilot can help us out w/ that number.
and the DOT DOES consider all flights under a carrier’s code as their own; outsourcing to regional carriers does not allow a carrier to goose mainline performance because they cancel and delay regional jet flights – as UA does ALL THE TIME.
and all of this supposed underperformance has not affected DL’s financial performance relative ot the big 4. Wanna help us wiht the operating margin, Paul?
I can tell you. DL was at the TOP OF THE HEAP.
As badly as you want DL to fall off the top of the hill, DL is at no risk of losing its lead and no other carrier is even close to mounting a serious challenge.
If any carrier is operating better than the rest of the big 4, it is WN – but THEY can’t turn it in revenue or profits.
@Pilot Paul — King of the Hill? “Bwah! That boy ain’t right.”