Delta Puts a Better Business Class on Routes Where Travelers Will Buy It
Photo Credit: Delta Air Lines is tweaking its strategy and it is adding more flatbeds to domestic routes. A Delta premium cabin is pictured here. Delta Air Lines
Skift Take
This is a simple business. If you're an airline, you should send your planes to places where they make money. Delta is doing it right.
U.S. airlines usually follow a formula when deciding which routes fly with premium cabin configurations.
If a plane crosses an ocean, the airline offers generous seating, usually with flatbed seats. Within North America, with a few exceptions like flights from New York, passengers only get a few extra inches of legroom and a wider seat.
This makes sense for operational reasons. Airlines prefer to reduce complexity; keeping international products and service separate is efficient. Plus, it helps with marketing because passengers know what to expect when flying anywhere in Europe.
Commercially, however, it's an odd strategy. Tourists don’t buy many flatbeds to some European tourist destinations, including secondary airports in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. But business travelers on longer U.S. routes might want them — if they were for sale.
Slowly, airlines are changing their strategies.
This weekend, Delta Air Lines announced it will add flatbeds to several domestic r
