#1 in ticket change fee revenue - Delta airlines

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Delta tops in change fee revenue | Atlanta Business Chronicle

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

Not surprising. They are the largest domestic airline. More passengers means more change fees, assuming passengers have a roughly equal chance of making a change, and assuming the fees are comparable (and they usually are).

Interestingly, Southwest is the second largest, measured by # pax, but charges no such fees. It will be interesting to see how long they hold out. They've already tightened the rules for how their credits can be used---they are no longer combinable nor transferrable.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

After UA and CO merge, they will be a larger airline than DL, however if you add the change fees of UA and CO they are less than those of DL.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

I'm not sure how you count, but UA+CO in 2009 did fewer passengers than DL.

World's largest airlines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Everyone commenting on the UA/CO merger say that it will make them a larger airline than DL. I have not seen DL dispute that, although you seem to. Of course it may come down to what criteria is used and you may be using something different than what is normally used to measure such things.

I'm not sure how you count, but UA+CO in 2009 did fewer passengers than DL.

World's largest airlines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

I'm just pointing you to passenger data. There are lots of ways to measure how big an airline is---by fleet size, by revenue, by passenger-miles, or by number of trips booked. It would seem that number of trips is most relevant to change fees, because you pay a fee for changing a trip. And, on that metric, Delta is still bigger. Pretty simple arithmetic that anyone can do for themselves.

In any event: that the airline that flies the most passengers generates the most change-fee revenue is news only in the dog-bites-man sense.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I'm just pointing you to passenger data. There are lots of ways to measure how big an airline is---by fleet size, by revenue, by passenger-miles, or by number of trips booked. It would seem that number of trips is most relevant to change fees, because you pay a fee for changing a trip. And, on that metric, Delta is still bigger. Pretty simple arithmetic that anyone can do for themselves.

In any event: that the airline that flies the most passengers generates the most change-fee revenue is news only in the dog-bites-man sense.

It was news to a business publication in Delta's hometown. Check the link.

Also revenue is derived from multiplying the number of passengers times the amount of the fee, so you are only looking at one metric.

[bnoble Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bnoble]

Naturally it is hometown news. Local company does good, rah rah.

The amount of the fee does matter, but DL is right in line with the other legacy carriers, and as usual higher than the LCCs. I find this chart handy for comparisons across the spectrum of possible fees:

http://i.slimg.com/sc/sl/graphic/u/u...rline-fees.pdf