Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Red ink spells doom for Song

Delta is closing the low-fare line after it lost $58-million in the first quarter, but promises to adopt some of its features.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published October 29, 2005

Delta Air Lines is pulling the plug on its discount carrier Song but adopting some of the short-lived brand's popular amenities, such as live TV at every seat.

Song will keep flying as a separate, all-coach brand until next May. Then Delta will reconfigure Song's 48 planes with first-class cabins to make them more attractive to business travelers and incorporate the aircraft into Delta's regular fleet.

Delta will add two of Song's most distinctive features - leather seats and individual entertainment systems with live TV, video games and music - to 50 more more planes. By next fall, all Delta transcontinental flights will have Song-style amenities while keeping Delta's first-class service.

The top business carrier and second-largest airline overall at Tampa International Airport, Delta is trying reorganize under bankruptcy court protection and emerge with lower costs. But the airline also wants to upgrade its product to keep pace with premium service discounters such as JetBlue Airways.

Delta launched Song in April 2003 to fight JetBlue, largely on low-fare leisure routes between the Northeast and Florida.

Song matched JetBlue with TVs at every seat, smiling flight attendants and low, simple fares. The competition resulted in prices that went as low as $120 round-trip between Tampa and either New York or Boston.

But business travelers who coveted first-class upgrades were left out. Song flies Delta's only nonstop service to New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Hartford, Conn. Word that first-class upgrades are returning to those markets was welcome news to Daniel Singer, a Delta Platinum Medallion member.

"I really don't mind Song for 2 1/2 hours," said Singer, a Tampa native who works for an accounting firm in Los Angeles. "But five or six hours on a (cross-country) red eye flight is pushing it. It's miserable."

Song was Delta's second try at fighting low-cost competitors with its own all-coach brand, called an "airline within an airline." Others that didn't survive include Song predecessor Delta Express, Shuttle by United, Continental Lite and US Airways' MetroJet.

United Airlines has "absolutely" no plans to discontinue Ted, its discount brand that flies from the airline's hubs to leisure markets such as Florida, a spokesman said Friday.

Delta blundered by straying from its roots as a full-service carrier for high-end business travelers and vacationers, said Darryl Jenkins, a longtime college aviation professor who now works with p2world.com, an online travel agency.

"They are not JetBlue; they are not Southwest," he said. "They should stop trying to act like them."

Delta spent about $65-million to start Song. Delta never broke out separate financial figures for its discount carrier.

But James Parker, airline analyst for Raymond James & Associates, estimates Song lost about $58-million during the first three months of this year - a quarter when Delta posted an overall loss of $684-million. Song was able to hold down JetBlue's earnings, said Parker, who upgraded JetBlue shares Friday on Delta's announcement.

Delta insists Song was a success, at least as a testing ground for innovations at the bigger airline. "Overall, Song has been a home run," said Paul Matsen, Delta's chief marketing officer.

From its start, Song has been a very different bird than Delta. It sells sandwiches and salads designed by chefs from high-end restaurants. The menu includes a smoked turkey breast sandwich on cranberry nut bread with cranberry relish and a grilled vegetable medley salad. Flight attendants mix custom drinks in the aisles.

Delta hasn't decided if the fancy food and booze will end up on the new Song-style transcontinental service, Matsen said.

But regular Delta customers will like the digital video screens with a selection of 10 pay-per-view movies and video games, more than 1,600 songs and 24 live television channels, he said.

Bringing back first-class upgrades and early boarding will appeal to the many elite SkyMiles members in Florida, Matsen said.

"Now is the time to bring the brands back together," he said. "We're not backing off competing in Florida. This is a blending of the two brands."

The hybrid service is targeted for transcontinental trips starting in fall 2006 and all routes of more than 1,750 miles within two years.

That's longer than the routes Song now flies between Florida and the Northeast. Delta hasn't released its May schedule yet but might end up using some smaller planes with first class cabins but not the Song amenities, Matsen said.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

Song will continue regular service through April 2006. If you buy a ticket on Song after that, Delta Air Lines will contact you when its summer schedule is set with an alternative flight or refund your money.

Four major airlines have tried to attack low-cost competitors with their own discount airlines. Here's a list of the knockoffs and how long they lasted:

Shuttle by United 1990-2001

Continental Lite 1994-95

MetroJet (US Airways) 1998-2001

Delta Express 1996-2003

Song (Delta) 2003-2006

Ted (United) 2003-

[Last modified October 29, 2005, 01:46:07]