Delta whipped up a surprise yesterday when it announced it would begin flights from both Raleigh/Durham and Pittsburgh to Paris/Charles de Gaulle next summer. I think I like this move, at least it seems like it’s worth a try, but I do find myself wondering if the planes will actually make it that far.
The flights will operate five days a week beginning June 2/3 with 757s. According to the Great Circle Mapper, the Pittsburgh flight will be 3,910 miles while the one from Raleigh clocks in at 4,052 miles. You know that Continental Newark-Berlin flight that has to make fuel stops a lot? Yeah, that’s only 3,980. So how the heck are they going to make this work? Maybe Delta’s Pratt & Whitney engines have longer legs than Continentals’ Rolls Royce ones. Or maybe they’re planning on lots of fuel stops.
But let’s assume they’ve figured out how to make this work technically. Will it work from a business standpoint? Pittsburgh is US Airways territory. Even though they’ve virtually abandoned the city, that’s still the big airline in town. And Raleigh, despite having lost its American hub years ago, is still an American loyalist stronghold. So, Delta, member of SkyTeam, is taking aim at the Star Alliance and oneworld carriers here by trying to steal some share. So how can they go into these cities where they have no loyalty and make a European flight work? It’s all about Air France.
If they take passengers from these cities and send them into Paris, they can connect them on to a ton of Air France flights all over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. All of a sudden, the service looks pretty interesting in that it can make a current two stop itinerary (US city to US gateway to EU gateway to EU city) into a one stop one (US city to EU gateway to EU city). And that can be attractive. Unfortunately, Delta’s red-tailed stepchild Northwest has tried this once and failed.
You may remember when Northwest started Hartford to Amsterdam as a way to take the traffic from Hartford and send it through Northwest partner KLM’s Amsterdam hub. It sounded good, but it lasted only a year before they announced the flight would be dropped. Maybe that was just because of high oil prices, and now it looks completely different, but if that was the case, you’d think Delta would be bringing that flight back instead of trying something new. In Hartford, there isn’t a loyalty to a single carrier like you have in Raleigh and Pittsburgh, so I’d think it would be an easier one to make work. Of course, if there isn’t enough local traffic, loyalty doesn’t matter. I figured that they might feel safer trying it from a Northwest stronghold like Indianapolis, but then again, that’s another 100 miles further than Raleigh, so I have no idea if they could even make that trip.
I have to give Delta credit for trying this one. If it works, it opens up a lot more opportunity for Delta from the East Coast to Paris and Amsterdam. If only Boeing would have kept the 757 production line and created an extended range 757-200 instead of wasting their time with the stretched 757-300. Just imagine what airlines would be flying right now if that plane had more range.
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The 757 is an aircraft that missed its calling. It was supposed to be a replacement for the 727 back in the 1980s. This meant its mission was for mid to longer-range domestic flights. The longest hauls were still the domain of the widebodies.
Slowly, airlines began using the plane more and more on coast to coast flights instead of using widebodies. They found that flying more flights with fewer seats on each flight was much more desirable for the business traveler’s schedule, so it ended up being very successful at this mission.
As people started becoming more comfortable with flying twin engines over water, the 757 again found a new market for itself. As production wound down, airlines just began discovering that the 757 could be used to open up long haul routes with lower demand, such as from the East Coast to secondary cities in Europe. Though production has ended, the plane is now very “hot” as airlines scramble to find more to use for these longer range routes.
Northwest is the latest to announce 757 flying over the Pond today with the following:
- Detroit – Brussels (Belgium) effective May 7
- Detroit – Dusseldorf (Germany) effective June 5
- Hartford (Conn) – Amsterdam effective July 1
As you can see, it’s connecting secondary cities (two in Europe, one in the US) with larger hub airports on either end.
Continental has done the most work with 757s over the Pond, mostly from their Newark base. From Newark, they fly 757s to Amsterdam, Stockholm, Barcelona, Belfast (UK), Birmingham (UK), Bristol (UK), Paris/Charles de Gaulle, Cologne (Germany), Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamburg (Germany), Lisbon, London/Gatwick, Madrid, Manchester (UK), Oslo, Shannon (Ireland), and Berlin/Tegel. They also fly from Cleveland to London/Gatwick and soon to Paris/Charles de Gaulle.
American has tried flights between Boston and both Shannon and Dublin in Ireland, but those have had mixed results.
US Airways started 757 flying this year from Philadelphia to Dublin, Shannon, Glasgow, and Lisbon. They were happy with results and expect to increase 757 flying going forward.
Delta has also indicated an interest in flying 757s over the Pond while United seems to be the only one who hasn’t.
On the other side of the Pond, Icelandair pioneered 757s flying from its Mid-Atlantic home in Keflavik to Boston, New York/JFK, Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Orlando/Sanford. Next year, Air Greenland makes its foray into the US market with flights from Baltimore to Kangerlussuaq.
Finnair has been experimenting in Stockholm – Boston and bmi used to fly from Washington/Dulles to Manchester (UK), but that appears to have been dropped. Plenty of charter airlines are wroking on 757 transatlantic service as well.
I won’t even get into the premium market where airlines fly in all Business Class configurations over the water on planes as small as an A319.
Though many people seem to prefer widebodies simply because it feels more roomy, alot of it is just overcoming perception. For example, nobody would think twice flying a 757 from Boston to San Francisco, but a 757 from Boston to Glasgow seems crazy. Well, the latter is a mere 300 miles further, so there isn’t much difference.
If you’re in coach, the accommodations should be about the same. Though the premium cabins may not be as nice for now, the airlines are working on that. In the end, 757s allow airlines to fly places nonstop that never could be flown before. If you live in Hartford, you can now get to Amsterdam nonstop and you can connect beyond to all the destinations in KLM’s network. I’d definitely rather fly the 757 than have to connect twice.
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Writing about wedding-related travel twice monthly
Writing daily about the airline industry
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