Delta
and American are no longer cooperating with each other on ticketing, rebookings or baggage transfers. The
airlines' previous interlining agreement expired on Tuesday.
The
expiration of the deal means that travelers dealing with canceled or disrupted
flights on either Delta or American cannot be rebooked on the other carrier. In
addition, flight itineraries can no longer be booked with segments on both
airlines and the carriers won't transfer baggage from one line to the other.
In a
statement posted to the Delta website, spokesman Anthony Black said
negotiations over a new agreement broke down because the two airlines couldn't
reach compensation terms that addressed the number of passengers that American
was sending Delta due to operational disruptions. American, Black said, sent
Delta five times as many passengers as Delta sent American.
“At that rate,
the industry agreement was no longer mutually beneficial,” Black said.
According
to DOT data, nearly 84% of Delta flights were on time in 2014, well ahead of
the approximately 76% on-time rate achieved by American. Through July of this
year, 2.1% of American flights had been canceled compared with just 0.7% of Delta flights.
In an
email statement Thursday, an American spokeswoman responded only indirectly to
Black's comment.
“While
this is a change, it will not affect our commitment to re-accommodate customers
during irregular operations,” she wrote. “The new American now has the world’s
largest and best network and our team is doing a great job of running a
reliable airline. With nine hubs and gateways and nearly 7,000 daily flights,
we have more ability to reroute our customers during operational disruption
than any other airline in the world.”