Delta Express Takeoff Boosts Orlando Discount Market

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Delta Express Takeoff Boosts Orlando Discount Market </B>

By Rowland Stiteler

<I>Orlando </I>- While a number of low-cost carriers suffered financial loss in the wake of last summer's ValuJet crash in Florida, business for the discounters is booming out of the Orlando market.

Part of the credit goes to Delta's choice of the popular destination as the focal point for rolling out its new budget air service-Delta Express (<I>BTN</I>, Aug. 19).

Delta opened the new airline on Oct. 1 in Orlando, with flights to 10 East Coast and midwestern cities, including Newark, N.J., Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and Indianapolis. Using Orlando as its primary hub, the new discount airline also connects to four Florida cities-West Palm Beach, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. Opening with about 36 flights a day from Orlando International Airport, the airline plans to almost double its daily flights in January, according to Delta spokesman Todd Clay.

With the launch of Delta Express, Orlando becomes something of a battleground in a discount carriers' fare war, with Southwest Airlines having entered the market last April, and Orlando-based AirTran Airways, another low-cost carrier, entering its third year of operation. Although the three carriers don't go head to head on many routes, they all offer similar prices.

Delta Express offers one-way service to Boston for as low as $79 with advance purchase; Southwest provides service to Columbus, Ohio, or Indianapolis for as little as $80, advance purchase; and AirTran, which operates a fleet of 10 Boeing 737s, flies to Providence/Newport, R.I, for as little as $79 with advance purchase, the same price Delta Express charges on that route.

Delta chairman and CEO Ronald Allen told reporters at a press conference announcing the start-up of Delta Express that the airline would "learn from the experiences" of previous, failed efforts like Continental Lite. Unlike Continental Lite, Delta Express will not fly on routes served by its parent company, Delta Air Lines, to avoid confusing the traveling public, he said.

While Delta Express will operate as its own entity, its aircraft will be owned and maintained by the parent company. The carrier has a fleet of 25 737s, which have been reconfigured to remove the first-class seating. Allen said he expects business travel to make up 40 percent of the carrier's passenger mix.

The main competition, Southwest Airlines, operates 20 flights a day from Orlando to 11 cities. Southwest spokesman Ed Hanson said he expects the competition in the Orlando market to be intense, calling it "the closest thing to war in peacetime.