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Part of the reason that Atlanta has grown so substantially and drawn such a tourist and convention business is that we have had two airlines hubbing here. Two airlines has meant lowfares to Atlanta and allowed many more people to travel here. Now, however, Delta Airlines is in trouble.

Of course they’ve been in trouble since the Pan-Am merge 13 years ago, but the costs associated with that merge now threaten to take the airline under. That would be bad for you and me, bad for the State of Georgia, and for the city of Atlanta.

The reason they’re not profitable is the cost structure, and the biggest problem with the Delta cost structure is the Pilots. They won’t accept a less lucrative deal even if it means driving Delta into bankruptcy. The airline says it needs one billion dollars in concessions, which means it likely really needs about $800 million. This is a key part of its ‘tranformation‘ or restructuring.

The State’s Municipal Mothers and Fathers need to keep pressure on Delta to make other streamlining efforts and to improve customer service and they need to put pressure on the Pilots to realize that the pay structures of American and Southwest and what’s coming.

What’s the best way to do this? Honestly, I think Gate Futures. The city can sell gate futures so that if Delta begins to break apart, airlines have already committed to fill those gates. It would be a way to get Jet Blue, American, Continental, and America West all to take another glance at Atlanta, and raise some money for the city!

If we don’t find a way to keep Delta afloat and no other airline comes in, we risk becoming Charlotte … without the banking jobs to keep us going.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 27th, 2004 at 10:32 am and is filed under Looking Toward the Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.