Pinnacle Airlines in Performance Dispute With Delta

By Staff Report

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Pinnacle Airlines said that Delta Air Lines wants to drop Pinnacle as a Delta Connection carrier, effective July 31, because of late flight arrivals. Pinnacle said Tuesday, June 10, that Delta’s effort to end its flying contract with Pinnacle is wrong and that Pinnacle will pursue "appropriate remedies," which it declined to specify.

Pinnacle flies out of Dayton International Airport, but under the banner of Northwest Airlines.

Starting this Saturday, Pinnacle will begin flying one of Delta’s daily flights out of Dayton to Atlanta, said Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton’s director of aviation. Pinnacle informed him of the change in a recent letter, Ahmad said.

Delta has established unrealistic flight schedules, Pinnacle said from its Memphis headquarters. In addition, some factors that affect flight ontime performance are beyond Pinnacle’s control, Pinnacle said.

Delta spokesman Kent Landers said that Pinnacle will be terminated because it has failed to meet the minimum performance standards spelled out in the contract it has to serve Delta.

"We believe it’s more important now than ever that Delta and the Delta Connection carriers meet the service expectations of our customers," Landers said from Delta headquarters in Atlanta.

Pinnacle accounts for just 23 of the approximately 2,500 daily departures of the eight airlines that fly as Delta Connection carriers, Landers said. Any one of those carriers can replace another on any given route, he said.

Pinnacle said the dispute will have no immediate effect on passengers and its schedules, routes and planning.

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