Delta getting ready to say so long to Song

By Andrew Compart

Oct 28, 2005

ATLANTA -- Delta is getting rid of Song, the low-fare service it launched in April 2003 primarily to try to stop customers from defecting to JetBlue.

However, Delta said it will keep and expand some of the elements of the Song service -- first to its transcontinental flights and then to any flight longer than 1,750 miles.

Those elements will include leather seats, live television, on-demand video and MP3 choose-your-music programming for all passengers.

Completely eliminated as of May, will be anything that identified Song as a separate brand, including the aircrafts white and lime green paint job. Songs separate Web site and toll-free telephone number for direct bookings also will cease to exist.

Gone, too, will be the all-coach seating on Songs 48 757 aircraft.

Delta had reconfigured the fleet to have 199 coach seats and no first class, thereby spreading its fixed costs to more seats and narrowing the cost-per-available-seat-mile gap between itself and JetBlue.

With Songs demise, however, Delta is reconfiguring those aircraft to reinstall 26 first class seats, leaving 158 in coach. That reconfiguration will last through the end of 2006.

Delta also plans to reconfigure more than 50 aircraft from its mainline fleet to the same two-class standard, with Song-style leather seating and in-flight entertainment.

The reconfigured and repainted aircraft will first be deployed to high-demand routes now serviced by the 767 aircraft Delta is moving to international service. (See sidebar, below.)

Beginning in fall 2006, the reconfigured aircraft will be redeployed to all of Deltas transcontinental flights. Over two years, the reconfigured aircraft will be used for any domestic route of more than 1,750 miles.

Routes currently with Song service will still have Delta service, spokeswoman Benet Wilson said. But Delta has not yet decided what aircraft it will be using for them.

To contact reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].

Redeployed aircraft to fly with one class

Delta is going to offer some of its international service with all-economy class pricing when it shifts some of its domestic fleet to international routes, until it can refurbish the aircraft with Deltas international business class cabins.

Delta is moving five of its 767-400 aircraft and eight of its 767-300 aircraft to international routes, which have mostly been devoid of low-cost competition and therefore more amenable to increases in fares.

Those aircraft, however, do not yet have a business class. The 400 series aircraft have 41 first class seats and 243 in economy. The 300 series aircraft have 24 in first and 228 in economy.

Until those aircraft can be converted for BusinessElite, Delta will sell all the seats at coach fares, Delta spokeswoman Benet Wilson said. Deltas Platinum, Gold and Silver frequent flyers, and travelers paying full fare, will be given priority to upgrade for free to the more spacious first class seats, she said.

Customers in the first class seats, however, will otherwise get the same service as everyone else on the aircraft. That means theyll get coach-level meals, and will have to pay for alcohol.

The 767-400 aircraft to be redeployed internationally will be used for Atlanta-Shannon, Ireland, service, a third Atlanta-London (Gatwick) flight, and service from New York (Kennedy) to Manchester, England, and Shannon and Dublin, Ireland, Wilson said.

Delta has not yet decided the international routes for its 767-300 aircraft, she said. -- A.C.