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Delta Air Lines is buying a refinery in a novel — and some say risky — attempt to slice $300 million a year from its escalating jet fuel bill.

The airline said Monday that it is buying the refinery near Philadelphia for $150 million from Phillips 66, a refining company being spun off from ConocoPhillips. The refinery has struggled to make money, and ConocoPhillips planned to shut it down if it couldn’t find a buyer.

Fuel is the largest and most volatile expense for the major airlines. They paid an average of $2.86 a gallon for jet fuel last year, up from $2.09 in 2007, according to statistics from the Bureau of Transportation.

source: businessweek.com

According to the U.S. Deprartment of Transportation’s’ Air Tavel Consumer Report’, more than half of the pets that died on airplanes in 2011 flew Delta.

Delta claims the statistic is flawed since more pets fly Delta than any other airline. Delta has already banned certain breeds of dogs that have snub noses because they have a propensity for respiratory problems.

The airline who had the second-most pets die on the plane was American Airlines.

source: 9news.com

A class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month in the US District Court in Miami by California consumer attorney John Mattes, Florida attorney David Tucker, and two other law firms, claims that Delta is only reimbursing passengers for a fraction of what they’re entitled to by law.

Passengers are allowed to claim up to $3,300 in reasonable expenses for their lost or delayed bags, according to federal regulations. Delta airlines, however, told passengers last year that they were only responsible to repay customers $25 a day for lost or delayed baggage, and up to $125 total. The airline was fined $100,000 by the US Department of Transportation for those claims.

About 130,000 bags were “‘mishandled'” by domestic airlines in October alone, according to the most recent DOT data. Delta reported mishandling about 16,000 bags that month and a total of about 328,000 for all of 2010. Over 2 million claims of mishandled bags were filed by passengers in 2010.

Delta Air Lines Inc. is boosting its flying out of New York’s LaGuardia airport, adding routes that target American Airlines and put it in a better position to compete against United.

Delta says the additions make it the biggest airline between the New York area and cities in the U.S. That should help it grab more business travelers.

The list of added cities reads like a map of the hubs of competing airlines. Delta is adding Miami and Dallas, both American Airlines hubs. It will also fly to Houston and Denver, which are both United hubs, and Charlotte, which is a hub for US Airways.

source: abcnews.go.com

For US Airways, the merger-hungry fifth-largest U.S. airline, a bankrupt American Airlines may present an irresistible takeover target, but many in the aviation world think the headaches and hassles of consolidation are not worth the payoff of such a tie-up.

American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in a bid to shed some of its uncompetitive costs and restructure its debt.

Bankruptcy leaves the company vulnerable to potential takeover attempts from would-be suitors like US Airways, whose chief executive Doug Parker has long promoted consolidation as a means to slim down an industry plagued by overcapacity. US Airways once tried and failed to buy Delta Air Lines as it restructured in bankruptcy.

source: Reuters

The recent order of 100 Boeing 737-900ERs by Delta Air Lines reflects an urgency by legacy carriers to replace ageing aircraft, but the airline’s decision to go with the -900ER does not preclude it from being an operator of the re-engined 737 Max.

Delta, which first announced the order on 25 August, said separately in a regulatory filing on 30 August that it is cancelling 126 existing options for 737-800s in exchange for an additional 30 options for the -900ER, on top of the 100 firm orders.

The SkyTeam carrier announced the order just days before Boeing rolled out the re-engined 737 Max, which the airframer said has already garnered 496 commitments from five carriers.

source: Flight Global

Delta Air Lines ordered 100 Boeing narrow-body jets worth more than $8.5bn at list prices, giving the US aerospace company a welcome boost after a series of setbacks.

Last month Boeing was forced to split a large order from American Airlines with its arch-rival Airbus, and was hurried into announcing a plan to upgrade its best-selling 737 family of narrow-body aircraft rather than building an all new small jet.

Fuel efficiency is a particular priority for airlines. Fuel costs constitute about 40 per cent of total airline operating expenses and high fuel prices have dented the fragile recovery that the sector has enjoyed since the global downturn.

source: FT.com

Delta Air Lines‘ revenue from baggage fees last year averaged out to about $8.58 per passenger, the second highest rate in the airline industry. Atlanta-based Delta has increased its baggage fees over time and currently charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag on domestic flights.

Among major carriers, only US Airways brought in baggage fee revenue at a higher rate at $9.91 per passenger.

Southwest Airlines brought in an average of just 28 cents in baggage fee revenue per passenger. Dallas-based Southwest does not charge fees for the first two checked bags but does charge for additional bags beyond two.

source: ajc.com

Delta is the first airline to let you track checked luggage on its website and smartphone.

When Delta passengers check in luggage online or at an airport’s kiosk or service desk, they’ll receive a unique tracking number. The number can be used on Delta’s website to trace the baggage from check-in all the way to the final destination airport’s luggage carousel. If luggage is lost, that same number can be used to file a claim online rather than through a fax form.

source: consumerreports.org

With the ‘Federal Aviation Administration’ granting early approval for the use of the iPad in airplane cockpits, major commercial airline companies like Delta are exploring the possibility of using Apple’s touchscreen tablet to ditch paper maps entirely.

Delta Air Lines is pursuing approval to test iPads and other tablet-style devices in its airline cockpits next quarter. The news comes just after the FAA endorsed the use of the iPad in a test project at Executive Jet Management.

source: appleinsider.com