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.