Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK): Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) Ups the Ante in Seattle

In early June, Delta started service from Seattle to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, complementing its flights to Narita . Haneda is much closer to the Tokyo city center, but for the most part, international flights must go through Narita. This makes Delta’s Seattle-Haneda route very desirable. This flight replaced an underperforming route between Detroit and Haneda Airport.

Later in June, Delta added another important international destination to its Seattle route map with the start of nonstop service to Shanghai . In July, Delta announced a new route from Seattle to London’s Heathrow Airport , which will begin next March. This is one of the first new routes enabled by Delta’s recent purchase of a 49% stake in British carrier Virgin Atlantic .

Just last week, Delta announced two new nonstops to Asia planned for 2014. Delta hopes to begin flying from Seattle to Seoul and Hong Kong next June, thereby adding two more big Asian business markets to its Seattle route map .As a further demonstration of its commitment to the Seattle market, earlier this month Delta appointed one of its vice presidents to oversee the company’s efforts in Seattle.

Stealing a march

Delta’s recent growth in Seattle — particularly for international flights — will give it a firm foothold in the market. In doing so, Delta may have stolen a march on American Airlines parent AMR Corporation (OTCMKTS:AAMRQ). American also has a codeshare relationship with Alaska Airlines , but it has not been able to leverage that partnership as well as Delta.

Today, American’s Asian route network severely lags Delta’s. While AMR Corporation (OTCMKTS:AAMRQ) has publicly stated that it plans to focus its growth on five “cornerstone” cities — Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, none of these hubs can match Seattle as an Asian gateway. However, with Delta already entrenched in Seattle, American will probably have to make do with its existing gateways and sparser Asian route network.

The article Delta Ups the Ante in Seattle originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Adam Levine-Weinberg.

Fool contributor Adam Levine-Weinberg has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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