We are a major air carrier that provides scheduled air transportation for passengers
and cargo throughout the United States and around the world. We (including our
wholly-owned subsidiaries, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Inc. (“ASA”) and Comair,
Inc. (“Comair”)) served 206 domestic cities in 47 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as 48 cities in 32 countries.
With our domestic and international codeshare partners, our route network covers
264 domestic cities in 47 states, and 230 cities in 84 countries. We are managed
as a single business unit.
An important characteristic of our route network is our hub airports in Atlanta,
Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth and Salt Lake City. Each of these hub operations
includes Delta flights that gather and distribute traffic from markets in the
geographic region surrounding the hub to other major cities and to other Delta
hubs. Our hub and spoke system also provides passengers with access to our principal
international gateways in Atlanta and New York — John F. Kennedy International
Airport (“JFK”). As briefly discussed below, other key characteristics of our
route network include our alliances with foreign airlines; the Delta Connection
Program; the Delta Shuttle; Song™, our low-fare service; and our marketing alliance
with Continental Airlines, Inc. (“Continental”) and Northwest Airlines, Inc.
(“Northwest”).
International Alliances. We have formed bilateral and multilateral marketing
alliances with foreign airlines to improve our access to international markets.
These arrangements can include codesharing, frequent flyer benefits, shared
or reciprocal access to passenger lounges, joint promotions and other marketing
agreements.
Our international codesharing agreements enable us to market and sell seats
to an expanded number of international destinations. Under codesharing arrangements,
we and the foreign carriers publish our respective airline designator codes
on a single flight operation, thereby allowing us and the foreign carrier to
offer joint service with one aircraft rather than operating separate services
with two aircraft. These arrangements typically allow us to sell seats on the
foreign carrier’s aircraft that are marketed under our “DL” designator code
and permit the foreign airline to sell seats on our aircraft that are marketed
under the foreign carrier’s two-letter designator code. As of March 1, 2004,
we have codeshare arrangements in effect with Aerolitoral, Aeromexico, Air France
(and certain of Air France’s affiliated carriers operating flights beyond Paris),
Air Jamaica, Alitalia, Avianca, British European, China Airlines, China Southern,
CSA Czech Airlines, El Al Israel Airlines, Korean Air, Royal Air Maroc and South
African Airways.
Delta, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines and Korean Air
are members of the SkyTeam international airline alliance. SkyTeam links the
route networks of the member airlines, providing opportunities for increased
connecting traffic while offering enhanced customer service through mutual codesharing
arrangements, reciprocal frequent flyer and lounge programs and coordinated
cargo operations. In 2002, we, our European SkyTeam partners and Korean Air
received limited antitrust immunity from the U.S. Department of Transportation
(“DOT”). The grant of antitrust immunity enables us and our immunized partners
to offer a more integrated route network, and develop common sales, marketing
and discount programs for customers.
Delta Connection Program. The Delta Connection program is our regional carrier
service, which feeds traffic to our route system through contracts with regional
air carriers that operate flights serving passengers primarily in small and
medium-sized cities. The program enables us to increase the number of flights
in certain locations, to better match capacity with demand and to preserve our
presence in smaller markets. Our Delta Connection network operates the largest
number of regional jets in the United States.
We have contractual arrangements with six regional carriers to operate regional
jet and turboprop aircraft using our “DL” code. ASA and Comair are our wholly-owned
subsidiaries, which operate all of their flights under our code. We also have
agreements with Atlantic Coast Airlines (“ACA”), SkyWest Airlines, Inc. (“SkyWest”),
Chautauqua Airlines, Inc. (“Chautauqua”) and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. (“Eagle”),
which operate some of their flights using our code.
Our contract with Eagle, which is limited to certain flights operated to and
from the Los Angeles International Airport, as well as a portion of our SkyWest
agreement, are structured as revenue proration agreements. These prorate arrangements
establish a fixed dollar or percentage division of revenues for tickets sold
to passengers traveling on connecting flight itineraries.
Delta Shuttle. The Delta Shuttle is our high frequency service targeted to
Northeast business travelers. It provides nonstop, hourly service between New
York - LaGuardia Airport
(“LaGuardia”) (Marine Air Terminal) and both Boston — Logan International Airport
(“Logan”) and Washington, D.C. — Ronald Reagan National Airport (“National”).
Song. On April 15, 2003, we introduced a new low-fare operation, Song, that
primarily offers flights between cities in the Northeastern United States, Los
Angeles, Las Vegas and Florida leisure destinations. As of March 1, 2004, Song
offered 144 daily flights using a fleet of 36 Boeing 757 aircraft. Song is intended
to assist us in competing more effectively with low-cost carriers in leisure
markets through a combination of larger aircraft, high frequency flights, advanced
in-flight entertainment technology and innovative product offerings.
Delta-Continental-Northwest Marketing Alliance. We have entered into a marketing
alliance with Continental and Northwest which includes mutual codesharing and
reciprocal frequent flyer and airport lounge access arrangements. Our marketing
relationship with Continental and Northwest is designed to permit the carriers
to retain their separate identities and route networks while increasing the
number of domestic and international connecting passengers using the three carriers’
route networks.
Competition
We face significant competition with respect to routes, services and fares.
Our domestic routes are subject to competition from both new and existing carriers,
some of which have substantially lower costs than we do and provide service
at lower fares to destinations served by us. We also compete with all-cargo
carriers, charter airlines, regional jet operators and, particularly on our
shorter routes, surface transportation.
The continuing growth of low-cost carriers, including Southwest Airlines Co.
(“Southwest”), AirTran Airways, Inc. (“AirTran”) and JetBlue Airways Corporation
(“JetBlue”), in the United States places significant competitive pressures on
us and other network carriers.
Our ability to compete effectively with low-cost carriers and other airlines
depends, in part, on our ability to achieve operating costs per available seat
mile (“unit costs”) that are competitive with those carriers. Our unit costs
are significantly higher than those of Southwest, AirTran and JetBlue and have
gone from being among the lowest of the hub-and-spoke carriers to among the
highest for the full year 2003. If we are not able to realign our cost structure
to compete with that of other carriers, or if fare reductions are not offset
by higher yields, our business, financial condition and operating results may
be materially adversely affected.
International marketing alliances formed by domestic and foreign carriers,
including the Star Alliance (among United Airlines, Inc. (“United”), Lufthansa
German Airlines and others) and the oneworld alliance (among AMR Corporation
(“American”), British Airways and others), have significantly increased competition
in international markets. Through marketing and codesharing arrangements with
U.S. carriers, foreign carriers have obtained access to interior U.S. passenger
traffic. Similarly, U.S. carriers have increased their ability to sell international
transportation such as transatlantic services to and beyond European cities
through alliances with international carriers.