The rise of low cost airlines has devastated airlines like Delta. As such, Delta tried to beat Southwest at their own game, using Delta Express to do so. However, this failed, but why exactly did this happen?
Many of the lessons that Delta learned from the failure of Delta Express allowed them to start Song Airlines, their second low cost airline. An airline that also failed too…
Before Southwest
Before Southwest was founded, Delta, as with many other legacy carriers, was one of the most profitable airlines. The Golden Age of Aviation led to Delta being extremely luxurious and quite profitable.
Before and during WWII, Delta operated air mail flights as well as operating scheduled passenger flights, with the occasional cargo flight. During this time, Delta mostly operated up and down the East Coast.
Shortly after WWII, Delta began to expand, buying Chicago and Southern Air Line, operating as Delta-C&S for several years. Soon after abandoning that name, Delta had a large jet fleet.
By 1970, had an all-jet fleet and was one of the largest airlines in the world (being one of the “Big Four” US airlines). In 1972, Delta expanded again, buying Northeast Airlines, adding its aircraft and routes.
In 1987, Delta expanded again, buying Western Airlines, adding the Western United States as well as several international routes. As well as adding Pan Am’s former routes in 1991, after Pan Am’s collapse.
As well as acquiring their routes, Delta also acquired Pan Am Shuttle- Pan Am’s regional shuttle division. A few years later, Delta began to operate more flights to South America. All resulting in Delta being quite successful.
Rise of Southwest
Southwest commenced operations in June 1971. Originally, it only operated a few routes, all of which were in Texas. To most airlines, even those based in Texas, Southwest wasn’t a threat.
In 1979, Southwest expanded out of Texas and into Illinois, taking its low-cost “no-frills” model with it. Still, the large airlines didn’t really take much notice of it. And if they did, it was probably only American, who operated in Texas.
Throughout the 1980’s, Southwest began to expand beyond just Texas and Illinois, expanding into both the Eastern and Western United States. The 1980’s also saw Southwest acquire other “no-frills” airlines.
All of this began to get Southwest worried, especially so when Southwest acquired Morris Air in 1994. This acquisition gave Southwest routes over almost all of the United States.
Now, prospective customers at travel agencies had two different types of airline available to them: no-frills or legacy. On some routes, this began to eat into the profit margins of legacy carriers such as Delta.
As time progressed further on into the 1990’s and later the 2000’s, Southwest began to grow larger and more successful. The more Southwest grew, the more money Delta and other legacy carriers lost.
Pre-Formation
Over the years, Delta, as with most other legacy carriers, had tried (and ultimately failed) to shut Southwest down through a variety of legal means. All of these means just resulted in a large bill for Delta.
For years, Delta, as with many other airlines, had thrown around the idea of buying out Southwest, in order to mitigate the damage. Many in Delta itself had floated the idea that Delta directly compete with Southwest in price. All to no avail.
In 1993, Continental Airlines had the idea to compete with Southwest, without losing face, but still carrying the weight of Continental Airlines. As such, they launched their short-lived Continental Lite airline.
Despite not being able to stay profitable, Continental Lite showed Delta, and other airlines how they could beat Southwest: At their own game. Delta realized that it could use its financial resources to strongarm Southwest out of the market.
Over the next three years, Delta brought in several experts on low cost airlines to help them with their new “airline within an airline”. Delta also used this time to carefully study Southwest and what made it so successful.
By 1996, Delta had settled on the Delta pilots and crew that would run its new division. After studying Southwest, Delta had also settled on an all economy class, all 737-200 fleet, in order to keep costs low.
Formation
In 1996, Delta Air Lines announced that they’d be starting what they called “an airline within an airline”. This airline would become Delta Express, a low cost “no-frills” airline owned and operated by Delta.
Many of the routes frequently used by Southwest, which were also served by Delta were soon turned over to Delta Express. These routes would serve as the backbone of Delta’s new airline, which were mostly short haul flights up and down the East coast.
Delta pulled several of its ageing 737-200s from its active fleet. These 737-200s were repainted in a livery reminiscent of the livery worn by Delta in the 1970’s (otherwise known as the “Widget” livery).
In 1997, the entire Delta fleet received a new modern livery, with the exception of Delta Express. In early 2000, the entire Delta Express fleet received a new livery, modernizing the old aircraft.
When it was launched, many people were quite excited that Delta had tried to combine the legacy carrier and no-frills airline models. At the start, many people were quite eager to get tickets, although this soon faded.
In 2000, Delta entered talks with Cartoon Network to promote their TV show, Powerpuff Girls, with a special aircraft livery. The same was also done in 2002 in order to promote Powerpuff Girls The Movie.
The Problem
Despite having a special aircraft livery that appealed to kids and a strong initial support from the public, Delta Express never quite lived up to everything people thought it would.
The vast majority of Express’ staff weren’t used to the Southwest-style flight schedule. As such, they were often ill-equipped to handle situations that Southwest employees would’ve easily handled.
Not only that, but the corporate higher ups also failed to properly motivate their staff through monetary compensation. The Express staff also believed that they were being treated unfairly, when compared to regular Delta staff.
All of this combined led to poor customer service both before and during the flight. As is so common with the vast majority of low cost airline flights, Express was notoriously late on almost every flight.
In 2001, 9/11 devastated the industry. Almost no one was flying, regardless of price. Many airlines became short on cash, including Delta. This resulted in Delta taking a series of cost cutting measures to keep the main airline afloat.
One of the things that Delta did, was cutting funding to Delta Express. In November 2001, cut back funding and gave many low cost routes back to the main Delta fleet, eliminating almost all of Express’ best routes.
The Fall
For the next two years, Delta Express got by. Following 9/11, the main Delta fleet gave Delta Express the routes it had previously taken. However, it all got too expensive for Delta to operate.
Throughout its entire existence, Express was never profitable, often requiring mini-internal corporate bailouts, in order to keep it going. Many of the aircraft were also ageing and needed replacement, something Delta was unwilling to do.
Delta also received a lot of bad press about their low cost airline. Many people had hoped it would be great, but in reality, it wasn’t. Within a few months of starting op-eds up and down the country criticized the new airline.
Whilst this may have been bad enough, Delta was also loosing passengers for its main brand. People were choosing Delta Express over Delta Air Lines, which was naturally very bad for business.
Combining all of these reasons, Delta decided it wasn’t worth it. As such, in 2003, Delta Air Lines announced that they’d be ceasing all operations of Delta Express and replacing it with a new airline- Song Airlines.
All routes were subsequently returned the mainline Delta fleet. Over the course of several months, former Express 737-200s were painted in a new Delta livery and then entered into mainline service, often on the same routes.
Within only a few months, almost all references to Delta Express were gone. All aircraft were in standard Delta livery, as well as the staff in Delta uniforms. Delta even replaced Express with a new low cost airline- Song.
What Was it Like to Fly on Delta Express?
Despite not succeeding where Delta had hoped it would, many people did fly on Express aircraft. Whilst some reviews of the airline were positive, a great deal of them were negative.
International Aviation HQ Editor-in-Chief, Christopher Harrow, flew on Express several times. He had this to say about Express:
The flights on the 737-200 were smooth for the most part, with the Delta pilots handling the odd bit of turbulence. For a no-frills airline, especially one that didn’t have much experience, the experience was quite good.
Landings were also quite good. Many low cost airlines are known for making hard landings, but the Delta training was definitely evident, which was probably the reason why their landings were so smooth.
However, as with most other no-frills airlines, there was no in-flight meals or entertainment. On most flights, the in-flight service was terrible, or at least poor in some way or another.
A recurring theme of most low cost “no frills” is that they are often delayed. Usually, this is only for a few minutes, but sometimes is for longer. Every Express flight I was on (all seven) were late.
I also noticed that a lot of the seats were empty. This often saw the crew moving people around in the cabin, in order to fix weight and balance issues.
How Safe Was Delta Express?
The safety of of Express is actually quite curious. Delta, as with most legacy carriers, operates the safest aircraft and prides itself on being one of the safest airlines in the world.
During its service, no Express 737-200 ever crashed or had any type of incident in its seven years in service. This is especially good considering that the 737-200 is one of the most dangerous aircraft.
Of the people I interviewed about flying on Express, many of noted how smooth the flight was. Many of them were surprised when I told them about the 737-200’s safety record.
After the 737-200s returned to mainline Delta service, none of them had any incidents or crashes. During their service with Express, Delta ground crews were maintaining and repairing Express 737-200s.
Legacy
Delta Express left an impact on both Delta Air Lines and the low cost airline that would one day replace it: Song Airlines.
Song Airlines
In 2003, Delta folded Delta Express and set up Song Airlines, the new low cost “no frills” airline. Delta learned from the mistakes that it made previously, and made Song a better airline.
One of the main reasons that Express failed was because the crew weren’t motivated enough. This led to poor service, delayed flights and thus, high operating costs, which resulted in Express never being profitable.
As such, Song employees, many of whom were former Express employees, were properly motivated. This resulted in the issues that made Express fail, being eliminated from Song. Although Song still failed.
Delta Air Lines
Delta too learned a lot from Express’ failure. They learned that they needed to be ever more vigilant when trying to compete with Southwest. It also learned that copying Southwest 100% wasn’t going to cut it either.
They learned that they needed to better motivate their staff, in order to reduce costs. They also learned that Southwest wasn’t going to give up without a fight, as such, they needed to use their larger profit margins to strong arm Southwest.
Many of the aircraft that were used by Express were subsequently put back into the main Delta fleet. Many of these were used until 2006, when they were stored alongside other older Delta aircraft.
Did you ever fly on Delta Express? What were your thoughts on it? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Aero Icarus via Flickr.