Delta, US Airways to give some of slots they were to swap to 4 other carriers

Delta, US Airways alter slot swap deal

ATLANTA — Delta Air lines and US Airways are seeking a compromise of sorts with the Department of Transportation in their effort to swap takeoff and landing slots at airports in New York and Washington.

They have agreed to give 12 percent of the slots they wanted to exchange with each other to four other airlines to help preserve competition.

The government said last month that Delta and US Airways could swap slots at the two airports, but they would have to sell some.

Delta and US Airways are challenging that requirement. They said they will not go forward with the swap if the original transaction, as modified Monday, is not approved.

Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, raised concerns Monday about the original slot swap transaction, saying that if it were to go forward as presented it would harm competition. The airline, based in Dallas, began service to New York’s LaGuardia Airport last year.

It said that if the deal is ultimately approved, Delta and US Airways should have to sell even more slots than the DOT is seeking. Southwest said the slots should be auctioned to the highest bidder. It said if it were to succeed in bidding for some of the slots, travelers would save because Southwest would bring more discounting to the markets.

A slot is an interval of time during which an airline can takeoff or land its aircraft at an airport. Slots, especially at peak times of day and in busy corridors like the Northeast, are valuable to airlines.

The original agreement, announced in August, called for US Airways to transfer 125 operating slot pairs at LaGuardia to Delta. In exchange, Delta agreed to transfer 42 operating slot pairs to US Airways at Reagan National Airport in Washington.

In its Feb. 9 decision, the DOT said it had tentatively allowed the transaction to proceed as long as the airlines sell some of their slot interests to carriers with no or limited service at the two airports. The approval required the airlines to sell 14 pairs of slot interests at National and 20 pairs at LaGuardia.

The two carriers balked, saying that would negate a significant portion of the proposed economic benefits they would achieve through the swap. They also said that as hub and spoke carriers, the divestiture would negatively impact travelers. That’s because, they said, the decision would result in the loss of opportunity for the country’s smaller- and medium-sized communities that would have benefited from new service as a result of the transaction.

In what appears to be an effort at compromise, Delta said Monday it has agreed with AirTran Airways, Spirit Airlines and Canadian carrier WestJet to transfer up to five pairs each of takeoff and landing slots at LaGuardia. In a separate transaction, US Airways has agreed to transfer five pairs of Reagan National slots to JetBlue Airways, which is based in New York. Spirit is based in Miramar, Fla., while WestJet is based in Calgary.

Delta, based in Atlanta, said its plans in New York would be to add or preserve service to dozens of small- and medium-sized communities, while adding service in a number of markets not currently served by US Airways. In Washington, US Airways would add 15 new, daily destinations to its schedule, including eight routes that currently have no daily nonstop service to Reagan National on any airline. US Airways, based in Tempe, Ariz., would fly to all of the destinations that Delta plans to discontinue as a result of the transaction.

A DOT spokesman said Monday the airlines’ modified transaction is under review.

The same week as the Delta-US Airways deal was announced, AirTran, based in Orlando, Fla., said it wanted to give its takeoff and landing slots at the Newark, N.J., airport to Continental Airlines in exchange for Continental slots at LaGuardia and National airports. Continental, based in Houston, has a hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, which is used by many travelers heading to or from New York City. The status of that deal is unclear.