Delta’s back. . . and it’s not cheap
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: Delta finally gets out of bankruptcy today. The airline has been hacking away at $19 billion in debt. Now, it’s focused on trying to make money. Nancy Marshall Genzer has more.
NANCY MARSHALL GENZER: One really good way to make money in the airline business? Stretch your wings on lucrative international flights.
Airline Analyst Richard Aboulafia says Delta won’t worry about competing with low-cost carriers on short flights. It’s fighting for long-haul passengers who will pay for comfort.
RICHARD ABOULAFIA: You and I would think nothing of paying peanuts fares to fly Southwest for an hour or two, but if it’s an eight-hour flight, we might rethink that.
Delta’s Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst says the airline learned from its mistakes and knows how to attract the high flyers.
JIM WHITEHURST: Our interiors got old and shabby. We’ve upgraded all of our interiors. We’ve created a new cleaning program where we deep clean our planes more than any other airline.
Delta started flying those squeaky clean planes on more than 60 new international routes last year.
It’s racing to add more new flights as competition heats up on routes across the Atlantic and to China.
I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
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