Delta plans long-haul luxury flights

Updated 6/19/2006 10:57 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this

By Marilyn Adams, USA TODAY

Delta Air Lines in August will launch a high-end transcontinental service, heating up competition for perk-loving long-haul fliers.

The No. 3 airline, which is in bankruptcy reorganization, plans to renovate 100 of its 477 full-size jets for long-haul routes, with two cabins and digital TV and music throughout the plane. The planes, all Boeing 757s or 737s, will be equipped with 24 channels of live TV, interactive video games and MP3 audio programming offering more than 1,600 songs. First class will have leather seats.

The first of the upgraded planes will appear on transcontinental flights. Within two years, the renovated planes will be available on all Delta domestic routes longer than 1,750 miles.

``Customer expectations on longer-haul flights have increased, and Delta is upgrading its long-haul product to meet that need,`` Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly said. Delta wouldn`t say which route will get the upgraded planes first.

The new transcontinental service is part of Delta`s efforts in bankruptcy to not only cut costs but also boost revenue.

Delta`s fares on the spiffed-up planes have not been announced. But rival United Airlines has shown that luxury can command a high price on transcontinental routes. On Friday, United was selling a short-notice, coast-to-coast round-trip first-class ticket on its ``Premium Service,`` or P.S., for $4,631.

No. 2 United`s P.S. operates Boeing 757s between New York John F. Kennedy airport and both Los Angeles and San Francisco. United says P.S., which offers lie-flat seats in first class and personal DVD players, has drawn first-class and business-class passengers from competitors on those routes. As with the Delta initiative, United began P.S. while still under bankruptcy protection in October 2004.

About half the Delta planes being renovated had been flying for Song, Delta`s low-fare, single-class service launched in 2003. Song lost money and was discontinued May 1.

On transcontinental routes now, Delta operates a mixture of Song planes, which have the new in-flight entertainment system, and other long-haul jets that don`t have it.

Washington, D.C.-based airline consultant Jon Ash says Delta`s move makes sense. ``The economics of Song never worked,`` Ash says.

Delta officials said its new transcontinental service will serve both Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, as well as Boston, Atlanta and Cincinnati in the East; Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle on the West Coast.

Atlanta-based Delta, which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, has posted net losses totaling $14 billion since the beginning of 2001.