For Delta Air Lines, focus cities like Raleigh are outpacing the industry

Delta Air Lines is seeing success in its “focus” markets – including Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where it has retained its dominance as the number one airline in terms of passenger volume.

At its investor day Dec. 12, Eric Phillips, Delta’s senior vice president of pricing and revenue management, said Delta’s corporate revenue growth is outpacing the industry on multiple fronts.

“It’s been higher than the industry by six points in our focus cities of Austin, Nashville, Raleigh and San Jose,” he said.

The airline is in investment-mode when it comes to its international flights. And that includes the nonstop flight to Paris it serves out of RDU.

Glen Hauenstein, president of Delta Air Lines, said international flying has been “challenged” over the past few years by the high U.S. dollar and the trade wars.

Source: Triangle Business Journal

“That will turn, it always does,” he says. “We don’t know exactly where it will inflect, where the dollar will peak, but when it does start to peak and when those trade issues get settled or resolved at some level, we see a significant upside in the international arena, significant upside.”

Through October, Delta held 30.9 percent of the market share at RDU when it came to boarding passengers. It had boarded 1.8 million passengers at the airport year to date, a 10.9 percent uptick from last year.

Numbers for November will be released next week.

For comparison, here’s how the top airlines at RDU stood in terms of market share through October:

• Delta: 30.9 percent
• American Airlines: 22.8 percent
• Southwest: 18.1 percent
• United: 11.6 percent
• Frontier Airlines: 7.2 percent