In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Delta (DALRQ) CEO Gerald Grinstein said regionals must improve their service quality. “If we are not getting the right service, we’ll make substitutions,” he said.
Grinstein signaled his belief that Delta should spin off Comair, although he indicated its fate rested with the new board of directors. “From my own perspective, I think there is a virtue of concentrating on the mainline,” Grinstein told the AP. “But you do need that feed, and how best to get it is something the new board is going to have to figure out. My view is you can get the benefits without necessarily owning the underlying asset.”
While regional airline customer service may need improving, it is the lack of major-airline customer service that is causing Congress to push for a Passenger Bill of Rights. In addition, as one regional rightly pointed out, much of consumer problems, such as scheduling, sales and fares, are done by the major carrier, all of which ultimately lands in the regional carrier’s lap when it comes to the DOT’s airline quality index. “Eighty five percent of what happens with a flight is handled by Delta,” said Atlantic Southeast Airlines Spokesperson Kate Modolo.
Indeed, when one drills down into the DOT statistics it is clear that much of what happens is beyond the regional’s control and relates to late arriving mainline aircraft and baggage or practices that call for regionals to wait for late arriving passengers, forcing the regional flight to be late as well. Related Story
The airline, which sold Atlantic Southeast nearly two years ago, said that it is contemplating the sale of Comair as well. Related Story  As usual, Comair and ASA were near the bottom of the airline quality index for both lost baggage and flight delays in the DOT’s most recent report.
“When we experience baggage failures or connection failures there, it does reflect on the parent, so anytime you have a connection carrier and it doesn’t perform at the level you hope, it’s going to reflect on the carrier that it’s connected with, that it is serving,” Grinstein said. “I think those are important parts of your brand image going ahead.”
After taking over the Atlanta customer service and baggage functions for Delta Connection carriers Chautauqua, Shuttle America and Freedom Airlines, all part of the Republic Airways (RJET) holding company, last year, Delta announced last month it will assume the ground services in Atlanta now done by Atlantic Southeast, effective June 1 as part of an effort for Delta to achieve seamless service at the hub.
ASA indicated that it had made great strides in improving its ATL ground operations. “We have made significant improvements,” said Modolo. “Our baggage rate is 10 per 1,000 and, while that is still high, it is much better than the 20 per 1,000 a year ago. We worked really hard to get it into the single digits. We call it building an infrastructure for success. In the last six-to-eight months we have invested a great deal of capital and added 300 people as well as new technology and new operating procedures. We are a leader among our peers in on-time performance. Delta will take an infrastructure that is growing more successful and build on that.”