US SPECIAL REPORT Delta Air Lines, sponsor of this Special Edition, predicts a continuing upturn in transatla


Delta’s Europe chief tips more transatlantic growth


T


he strong recovery in international travel post-pandemic is set to continue and bring growth


to and from the US in particular. That is according to Delta Air


Lines’ new head in Europe, Matteo Curcio, who said: “The recovery is very strong, especially premium leisure, and we see a stable demand environment – one that should be healthy for some time. “When you look at the correlation


between aviation and US GDP, there is a gap of $300 billion which would have been spent on travel in the last three years and has not been.” He argued the strength of demand


“is reflected in our results”, adding: “We’re looking at our most-profitable ever second quarter [April to June] and upped our guidance on year-end results last month.” Curcio took over as Delta senior


vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India this week, having previously headed the airline’s Asia-Pacific operation. He has worked at Delta since 2006, going on to develop Delta’s joint venture with Air France-KLM.


UK expansion He noted: “When I started at Delta in 2006, we had one daily flight to Gatwick. We didn’t have access to Heathrow.” Now, he said, with joint-venture partner Virgin Atlantic, “we’re a solid number-two” in the UK transatlantic market. Delta began flying to Gatwick in


1978 but was excluded from Heathrow under a US-UK agreement which, until 2008, restricted transatlantic access to Heathrow to just four airlines. Yet this summer, the carrier


will operate 75 flights a week from 10 6 JULY 2023


Our schedule from the UK is almost back to the pre-pandemic level, at 99%


Heathrow to the US and 222 together with Virgin Atlantic, jointly offering 20% more capacity than last summer. Delta’s UK seat capacity alone is 46% up year on year and 29% up on 2019. Delta returned to Gatwick in


April for the first time in 15 years, operating a daily service to New York-JFK. And it launched a daily summer service from Edinburgh to Atlanta in May, to add to daily flights to New York-JFK and Boston. Curcio described Delta’s


transatlantic operation as “our most important” and said: “We’re flying the largest transatlantic schedule in our history, both as Delta and as a joint-venture with Virgin Atlantic and Air France-KLM.” He noted: “Our schedule from


the UK is almost back to the pre- pandemic level, at 99%.” However, Delta’s transatlantic premium traffic to and from the UK is up 16% on 2019.


Matteo Curcio


Curcio acknowledged the


strength of the dollar in the US market “is one reason we see such strong transatlantic travel”. But with “the traditional corporate market still lagging at 70%-75% of 2019’s traffic”, it is premium leisure demand driving the growth above pre-pandemic levels. He suggested “there is some


structural element” to the lag in corporate traffic, arguing: “There is more flexibility in the way people work. We’re seeing new patterns of travel, but we expect an uptick. Corporates expect to travel more in the second half of the year.”


Operational resilience Operational reliability is “the priority” this summer following the flight delays and cancellations across Europe last year. The US has suffered its own problems, with more than 8,000 flights cancelled last week. But Curcio insisted: “The problems


experienced in Europe last year are well behind us. We didn’t know how difficult it was to shut down an airline or how difficult it was to restart.” He characterised the resumption


in air travel last year in Europe as “passing from nothing to 100 in no time” and noted: “The recovery in Asia-Pacific was slower. It was more phased. The transition was easier.” Now he said: “Our focus is


on operational reliability because everything else we offer is based on that, and operational reliability comes through a focus on, and the trust of, our people. One in four of our employees is new – we onboarded more than 25,000 during the recovery.” Delta operates to 15 US


destinations from the UK and, with Virgin Atlantic, operates 278 flights a week to the US.


Delta’s UK seat capacity is 46% up year on year and 29% up on 2019


Agents and TMCs remain


Travel agents and travel management companies (TMCs) play “a critical role” for Delta Air Lines, insists Matteo Curcio. Delta takes about 60% of its worldwide


bookings direct, with 40% made through intermediaries. But the proportion of agency and TMC bookings in the UK is much higher. In the first five months of this year, Delta reports two-thirds of its UK bookings came through intermediaries. Curcio said: “Agents remain


important to us and our UK corporate and travel agency partners will continue to play a critical role to Delta and our joint-venture partners in future.” This does not mean Delta and partner Virgin Atlantic are ignoring developments


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