Airlines Rally

Airlines’ focus on the most-profitable flying breaks with their old habit of trying to grab passengers even if flights lost money. Investors are responding to that approach, sending the Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index to a 41 percent gain this year through yesterday, more than twice the 17 percent advance for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

American, reorganizing in bankruptcy and poised to merge with US Airways Group Inc., accounts for 32 percent of revenue on the New York-Los Angeles route, according to Boyd. By his estimates, Virgin America has 21 percent, Delta has 19 percent, United Continental Holdings Inc.’s United is at 16 percent and JetBlue has 11 percent.

“That transcon market is incredibly important because it helps you become the preferred carrier across the board,” said Gail Grimmett, Delta’s senior vice president for New York.

Luxury Rivals

Any loyalty built for shorter domestic trips may be tested when elite fliers go abroad. United, Delta and American trail international rivals in operating the biggest and newest planes on overseas routes, which typically are the most profitable because of the lack of discount competition.

No U.S. carrier flies the Airbus SAS A380 superjumbo jet, which seats about 500. Emirates’ A380s feature private suites and showers, and Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s double-deckers have hand-stitched armchairs.

Lie-flat seats are the focus of the New York-Los Angeles jockeying.

Delta has taken some wide-body Boeing 767s with flat-bed seats off trans-Atlantic routes and put them on cross-country service. It’s adding flat-bed seats on existing 757s on those routes, replacing cradle-style units.

United is yanking out the 12 seats that tilt to not-quite horizontal on its narrow-body Boeing 757s on transcontinental routes. In their place will be 28 lie-flat seats as the Chicago- based carrier rearranges the cabins and goes to two classes of service from three, which adds 32 more seats in coach to “help with the economics of the airplane,” Chief Revenue Officer Jim Compton said.