WEBVTT - Delta Extends Plan to Block Middle Seat on Flights

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<v Speaker 1>It's Friday, February twelve. I'm Oscar Mrors from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>There's only one airline left where you can book a

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<v Speaker 1>flight with no one in the middle seat at least

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<v Speaker 1>until the end of April, and that's on Delta. Despite

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<v Speaker 1>a pandemic, most people just want the cheapest fair possible,

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<v Speaker 1>and Delta has even lost money with this plan, but

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<v Speaker 1>they feel like they're building up some goodwill when business

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<v Speaker 1>travelers come back. Scott McCartney, middle seat columnists at The

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<v Speaker 1>Wall Street Journal, joins us for more. Thanks for joining, Scott.

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<v Speaker 1>Good to be with you. I wanted to talk about

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<v Speaker 1>the last airline who is still blocking the middle seats

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<v Speaker 1>on flights. Delta announced that they're going to be extending

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<v Speaker 1>their middle seat blockage for at least one more month,

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<v Speaker 1>to the end of April. Now, a lot of the

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<v Speaker 1>airlines were doing this throughout the pandemic. Most of them

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<v Speaker 1>ended just at the tail end of last year. But

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<v Speaker 1>Delta is kind of betting that they'll build up some

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<v Speaker 1>good will and at least consumer confidence in them. But

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<v Speaker 1>they're losing a lot of money. They're being beat out

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<v Speaker 1>by cheaper flights. That still is king. Everybody wants that

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<v Speaker 1>cheapest flight that they can get, so Scott tell us

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit more about it. That's right, Delta's extended

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<v Speaker 1>through the end of April. They're paying a huge financial

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<v Speaker 1>penalty for this. It's very clear. Before the pandemic and

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<v Speaker 1>the last half of two thousand nineteen, Delta was the

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<v Speaker 1>most profitable airline in the US and then in the

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<v Speaker 1>last half of two thousand twenty it had flipped to

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<v Speaker 1>the airline with the biggest losses. Delta is getting a

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<v Speaker 1>revenue premium, so the people who are flying Delta are

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<v Speaker 1>paying more, and presumably that's because not having somebody in

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<v Speaker 1>the middle seat is attractive to them, but there just

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<v Speaker 1>aren't enough of them. The Delta's overall revenue is much

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<v Speaker 1>weaker than other airlines, and you can see it. Delta

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<v Speaker 1>has been filling about of its seats, Americans filling more

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<v Speaker 1>than sixty percent of its seats, so Americans carrying a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more people on each flight, and even though people

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<v Speaker 1>are paying a little bit more to Delta doesn't nearly

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<v Speaker 1>make up for it. We've all seen the pictures of

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<v Speaker 1>really packed flights. Everybody with their masks on sitting really

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<v Speaker 1>close to each other. Everybody kind of sees that and

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<v Speaker 1>they say, wow, that's scary. Maybe we shouldn't be flying.

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<v Speaker 1>But you know, that's not really how it played out

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<v Speaker 1>in practicality. Delta lost a lot of business to other

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<v Speaker 1>airlines with really cheap bears, like Spirit packing people in there.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, the lesson of this is that people do

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<v Speaker 1>want cheap fares, and that's really always been the lesson

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<v Speaker 1>of the airline industry when airlines have tried on a

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<v Speaker 1>large scale basis to offer more room more comfort. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>years back, American did more room throughout coach and people

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<v Speaker 1>just weren't willing to pay enough. People weren't willing to

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<v Speaker 1>pay extra for it. I looked at some particular markets

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<v Speaker 1>and it was fascinating. Um, Atlanta Chicago is a good

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<v Speaker 1>market to look at. Its Delta is the biggest airline

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<v Speaker 1>in that market, obviously because of its giant Atlanta hub,

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<v Speaker 1>but United's in their Americans in there, so you have

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of competition on that that route. And when

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<v Speaker 1>you look at it for the third quarter prime time

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<v Speaker 1>in the pandemic, Delta lost market share. It's fairs held

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<v Speaker 1>up pretty well in that market compared to the other guys,

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<v Speaker 1>But Spirits slashed it's fairs, and Spirit was nine of

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<v Speaker 1>the market going in, and Spirits average fair one way

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<v Speaker 1>was thirty four dollars, and you know, it's just sort

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<v Speaker 1>of ridiculous, sixty eight dollar round trip tickets between Atlanta

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<v Speaker 1>and Chicago. The Spirit was up of the market, and

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<v Speaker 1>so it was pretty clear evidence that given the choice

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<v Speaker 1>empty middle seat or cheap fair, more people were opting

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<v Speaker 1>for cheap fair. So, I mean, it doesn't really seem

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<v Speaker 1>like it's working out for them. Delta, for its part,

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<v Speaker 1>says they're selling peace of mind to those people that

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<v Speaker 1>kind of want to be a little more spaced out.

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<v Speaker 1>What's their big bet that it's just going to come

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<v Speaker 1>back once vaccines are in place and more people are

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<v Speaker 1>traveling and all that. I think the way to look

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<v Speaker 1>at it is that Delta is not worried about winning

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<v Speaker 1>the pandemic. Delta is playing the long game here and

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<v Speaker 1>really marketing to people who aren't traveling. And what they're

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<v Speaker 1>saying is we will take care of you better than

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<v Speaker 1>other airlines. And they think that when business travel does

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<v Speaker 1>start to come back, when people who have been afraid

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<v Speaker 1>to fly for the past year. Now when they start

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<v Speaker 1>coming back that they will opt for Delta over other guys. So,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the pandemic is costing them a huge amount

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<v Speaker 1>of money, but essentially they hope to get it back

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<v Speaker 1>in a sense when things get better, by doing better

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<v Speaker 1>than their competitors in the recovery. We've talked a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit about this before, you know, just kind of the

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<v Speaker 1>science of flying and and virus transmission. You know, a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people are saying, well, it's really safe because

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<v Speaker 1>the planes have these really good ventilation systems, but there

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<v Speaker 1>are studies that suggest that, you know, proximity matters. We've

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<v Speaker 1>talked about this, you know, the people right in front

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<v Speaker 1>of you, the people right in back of you. It's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of a both sides. Whether more bodies in the

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<v Speaker 1>plane could make you more susceptible to get into virus,

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<v Speaker 1>there is a common sense logic to this. I think

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<v Speaker 1>there's no doubt that more bodies in the airplane increase

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<v Speaker 1>your chances of contracting the virus. On the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>the risk is very small to begin with, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>small to begin with because of ventilation on airplanes. It's

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<v Speaker 1>small to begin with because there are fairly rigid mask

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<v Speaker 1>rules now, and that does make a difference. So what

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<v Speaker 1>you're talking about is increased risk off a very small

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<v Speaker 1>risk to begin with, And so airlines argue that's not significant.

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<v Speaker 1>Other people have argued, well, it may be significant, but

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<v Speaker 1>there is acknowledgement that it's still a small risk even

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<v Speaker 1>with somebody in the middle seat. That said, I think

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<v Speaker 1>being shoulder to shoulder with a stranger these days, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>sort of flies in the face of common sense when

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<v Speaker 1>we're told to socially distance since day six ft apart.

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<v Speaker 1>And then so that's sort of what Delta is thinking.

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<v Speaker 1>They say they're not doing this for safety, they're doing

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<v Speaker 1>it because it's what customers, what they think customers want. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>there you go. Delta is the only game in town

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<v Speaker 1>if you want that middle seat blocked out at least

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<v Speaker 1>until the end of April. Scott McCartney, middle seat calumnist

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<v Speaker 1>at the Wall Street Journal, thank you very much for

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<v Speaker 1>joining us. Always good to be with you. I'm Oscar

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<v Speaker 1>Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget effort

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<v Speaker 1>today's big news stories. You can check me out in

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<v Speaker 1>the Daily Dive podcast every money to Friday. So follow

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