Delta Q2 Financial Results and Alaska Winter Plans – Cranky Flier

Delta Reports Second Quarter Results, Announces New Partner

Delta Air Lines ended June with a profit of $2.3 billion on revenue of $16.7 billion for the second quarter of the year, returning just over $2 per share to its shareholders.

Delta delivered a 15% operating margin for the quarter and ended the first half of the year with $640 million set aside for next year’s profit sharing for staff. Employees will have the option to take the cash or the sterling equivalent in Biscoffs, and must declare their choice by the end of the year. Revenue of $16.7 billion was up 5.4% from last year’s second quarter, despite a 2.6% year-over-year decline in TRASM.

It also signed a deal with Riyadh Air — an airline that doesn’t fly anywhere yet — to serve as the new carrier’s exclusive partner in North America, with hopes of beginning service to Riyadh from a yet-to-be-unveiled gateway (likely one that rhymes with Platlanta) next year.

The airline operated 39 days in the quarter without canceling a single flight, but still managed to cancel your weekend flight despite the seemingly beautiful weather at home and at your destination. It ended the quarter with 15,585 units of blood collected at 373 staff blood drives and $2.5 billion in cash on hand – if it were willing to trade blood for cash, that would be nearly $3 billion.

Winter in Alaska just got more fun

Alaska Airlines added 18 new routes and one new destination earlier this week to a mix of sunny winter getaways, fun ski destinations and Tucson. Of the 18, Alaska confirmed that some of those routes are in partnership with Apple Leisure Vacation Group, likely because Banana Leisure Vacation Group wasn’t taking any calls.

The new destination is Vail, which will welcome AS flights for the first time with 3x-weekly service from San Diego and Seattle. Other ski-focused additions include Reno (with service from San Diego), Kelowna, BC (Los Angeles) and Bozeman (Boise). For those who prefer the warmth, Alaska is adding year-round flights between Boise and Orange County, and seasonal service from Boise and Sacramento to Orlando.

San Francisco and Seattle will both get service to Liberia and Costa Rica. The addition of SEA will make it Alaska’s 104th exciting nonstop destination from its SEA hub…well, 103 plus Newark. The carrier will also expand south of the border into Mexico, with daily flights between Fresno and Guadalajara, 5x weekly between Sacramento and Los Cabos, and Puerto Vallarta to SMF and JFK. PVR is also adding the two Missouri stops, St. Louis and Kansas City, while MCI is also planning new weekly service to Cancun.

Finally, it added a seasonal daily flight between Sacramento and Tucson for anyone who might lose a bet and need to fly between those two cities.

Battle for new DCA slots rages on

Applications for the five new slots beyond the Washington/National perimeter are in, and the list is pretty much what you’d expect. There are four slots available for non-restricted holders and one slot for restricted holders. Spirit submitted its application for a flight to San Jose and Frontier chose San Juan even though the FAA told them they didn’t count as restricted holders and weren’t eligible. The airlines disagreed and kept submitting their applications, because who doesn’t like tilting at windmills?

The full list is as follows:

• American: San Antonio
• Alaska: San Diego
• Delta: Seattle (alternative: Salt Lake City)
• Border: San Juan
• JetBlue: San Juan (alternative: Los Angeles)
• Spirit: San Jose
• Southwest: Las Vegas continues to Sacramento
• United: San Francisco (alternate: Los Angeles)

Breeze noted to the DOT that if it were eligible for the process, it would have “met the selection criteria better than any other airline,” which doesn’t sound very… pleasant.

Southwest Airlines: It just means more

Southwest Airlines was named the official airline of the Southeastern Conference this week as the league expands further into the Southwest with the addition of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma this fall.

As part of the partnership, the conference is adding additional flights to several key football games this fall, including LSU vs. USC in Las Vegas, Alabama vs. Wisconsin, Tennessee vs. Oklahoma and Georgia vs. Texas. Southwest will also host on-site activations during the SEC Marching Band at the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, news that will surely please Delta.

League schools are expected to celebrate the new partnership by adopting several Southwest policies this year, including open seating at home sporting events, including football, drinks served in tiny plastic cups, all food replaced with Salty Death Mix and allowing all fans to check two bags for free per game.

Additionally, all A-List Preferred Members who apply to an SEC institution will receive preferred admission.^* and a 10% reduction on tuition fees.

^{*Vanderbilt excluded.}

Air France-KLM announces codeshare and interline flights with SAS

SAS’s union with SkyTeam carriers has taken a new step forward by partnering with Air France-KLM for a code-sharing and interline agreement, effective September 1.

When the partnership begins, Air France and KLM customers will have access to 33 SAS destinations from its hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, while SAS customers will have access to AF/KL’s entire European network, even to regions that no self-respecting Scandinavian would ever want to visit.

The merger will also be accompanied by reciprocity of miles earned and spent through the Flying Blue and EuroBonus programs respectively. Between Air France and KLM, the combined carrier operates around 200 flights per week from Amsterdam and Paris to SAS’s three hubs, while SAS operates 44 weekly flights from the trio to Amsterdam or Paris/CDG.

• Air IndiaMerger with Vistara is getting closer.
• Air Inuit added its first B737-800(SF) to augment its cargo operations by delivering essential items to small, remote Canadian towns that are completely real, not invented, locations.
• Air Mauritius is finally resuming its seasonal service to Geneva this fall.
• Air Senegal is currently being audited.
• airBaltic I had a good month of June.
• Aircalin is in trouble.
• American offered its free agents a substantial raise.
• Broken blows over Portsmouth, NH and Montrose, CO.
• Etihad increases capacity on its new flight to Boston.
• Fiji Airways will finally give us the non-stop connection between Nadi and Dallas/Fort Worth that has been missing for generations.
• Korean is close to a B777X purchase.
• Lufthansa is the target of an EU investigation into its pandemic aid programmes.
• Nauru Airlines studying a possible extension. Finally.
• North Atlantic develops its charter activity.
• Qantas It took so long to respond to complaints last year that it calls into question the old adage that practice makes perfect.
• Ryanair likes what he sees in Tangier.
• SingaporeThe new joint venture with Garuda Indonesia has been enhanced by the Singapore government.
• SKY plans to launch national operations in Argentina.
• South West added Rakesh Gangwal to its board of directors.
• UnitedThe wheels are flying off. Literally. American too.
• Vietnamese Airlines received its first A320neo.