"Delta slammed for high fares by North Carolina airport chief"

Friday, October 13, 2006

Delta slammed for high fares by airport chief 
The Associated Press 
 

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - A blistering letter from the head of the
Piedmont-Triad Airport Authority complains that Delta Air Lines charges
inflated rates for travel from the airport and is driving down the number of
passengers there.

In a letter faxed Thursday to Delta's chairman and chief executive officer,
Henry Isaacson complained that the airline's "discriminatory pricing policy"
is undermining the airport's business.

"As a result of Delta's pricing and inventory policies at (Piedmont Triad
International Airport)," he wrote, "your traffic has plummeted at the
airport. And, because you have been the largest carrier at GSO, the
airport's traffic has dropped significantly."

Isaacson told Delta chief Gerald Grinstein that he has met "numerous times"
with Delta staff and "we feel that this problem now needs your personal
attention."

The letter was also sent to the mayors of Greensboro, High Point and
Winston-Salem.

Isaacson said he was moved to write because he believes about 2,300 people a
day from the Greensboro market drive to the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham
airports, each about an hour and a half away, to take advantage of markedly
lower fares.

"Not a day goes by that I don't hear a complaint from people about the fares
at our airport versus Raleigh-Durham, and I think I can lay a good part of
that blame at Delta's feet," he told the News & Record of Greensboro.

A Delta spokeswoman said the company's prices are based on what the market
will bear.

"Delta sets its prices based on what the local market will bear, and its
fares are competitive with other airlines serving Greensboro," Gina Laughlin
said.

She said Grinstein had not seen the letter Thursday because he was out of
town.

Grinstein was in New York on Thursday, where he said he plans to step down
soon after the nation's No. 3 carrier emerges from bankruptcy protection -
projected for the first half of 2007.

He also announced expanded and new international service, part of Delta's
continuing makeover into an international-focused carrier.

Boardings at the Piedmont-Triad International Airport are down 17%, or
150,305 passengers, through Aug. 31 this year, compared with the same period
in 2005. Delta accounts for 73% of PTI's decline, with its boardings down
nearly 32% through Aug. 31.

Isaacson compared Delta fares to four destinations from Charlotte,
Raleigh-Durham and Piedmont-Triad airports.

A one-day trip to Boston on Dec. 6 cost $798 from Greensboro, compared to
$158 from Raleigh-Durham and $262 from Charlotte. To New York's LaGuardia
Airport, a trip on the same day cost $768 from Greensboro, $158 from
Raleigh-Durham and $98 from Charlotte.

Laughlin said the examples don't account for discount fares. She said that,
since Delta cut its capacity earlier this year as part of a financial
reorganization, fewer of those fares are available on each flight and can
sell out quickly.

Isaacson began meeting with officials of Delta, US Airways and other
airlines serving the Greensboro airport two years ago, when AirTran left the
airport. The carrier was the last large low-fare airline to serve
Piedmont-Triad.

"We went to see US Airways. They did something about it. I told Delta. It
just didn't resonate," he said. "I think our citizens in the Triad deserve
better than to be mistreated by the airlines just because we don't have a
low-fare carrier here."

Keith Debbage, an aviation analyst and geography professor at the University
of North Carolina-Greensboro, said Isaacson is taking a risk by publicizing
the fare differences, but the size of those differences is itself troubling.

"I'm shocked to see such a massive price difference by one airline to the
same destination from three neighboring airports," Debbage told the
Winston-Salem Journal. "It sounds to me that Delta is a business that no
longer wants to do competitive business in the Triad."

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