Delta/AirTran Atlanta row

A bit of a row has developed over claims by Delta Air Lines that its has delivered better performance than AirTran Airways at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL), the world’s busiest airport.

At issue are the larger implications of Delta’s statement that it “has delivered better on-time performance than its largest competitor for the past 13 months”. Specifically, Delta says “The release of January 2006 data by the Department of Transportation (DOT) confirms Delta topped AirTran in on-time service at the start of the new year in Atlanta, continuing a trend that includes all of 2005”.

“We know customers have a choice when they fly,” says Lee Macenczak, Delta’s executive vice president and chief of customer service, “and we know they value an on-time schedule”.

AirTran was quick to answer Delta’s numbers. The discount airline concedes that while Delta did, in fact, have 2.7 per cent better on-time performance numbers in January 2006 than it did (75.7 per cent of Delta flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule versus 73.7 per cent for AirTran), these stats don’t tell the whole story.

Kevin Healy, AirTran’s vice president of planning, wants travelers to examine “all the consumer metrics reported by DOT”. Do that, he says, and you will find that “Delta was 21 per cent more likely to cancel your flight (than AirTran), 64 per cent more likely to lose your bag [and] an astounding 1,440 per cent more likely to bump you against your will”. Healey says DOT figures also indicate that those traveling on the nation’s third-largest airline complained 93 per cent more about their flight and service than those using AirTran.

Over the past few years, cheap seat AirTran has emerged as Atlanta’s second-largest carrier, competing against Delta on many of the same routes that the now defunct Eastern Airlines did more than a decade ago.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler