Jacquorie: Nigerian route is a complicated market

Managing Director, International Customer Experience and Strategy, Delta Air Lines, Michael Jacquorie speaks to WOLE SHADARE in Atlanta, Georgia on the huge investment on its products, its plan on the Nigerian routes, interline arrangement with Nigerian carriers among others that have strengthened its foothold on the lucrative Atlanta-Lagos route

What has been customers’ experience at Delta?

Customer experience for us at Delta specifically over the last five years has been really focused on across all the different divisions that we are working here at Delta and on the international side we are using a few themes that you see here to drive improvements, to drive how we make the experience for our customers better globally. First things first, it has to be a global approach which means we are focused on our network. We are an airline that provides with our partners the best international network globally. You connect to 280 plus destinations with us and our partners. We at Delta alone have about 4,000 plus flights a day and specifically here in the US we have unmatched connectivity. So you come to the US, you fly through Atlanta, you go everywhere. And the same is true for other hubs like JFK or our coastal hubs in the West. But also we are in constant exchange with our partners. I just mentioned I came back to Atlanta from Paris yesterday because we need to learn. We need to hear what our partners are telling us about how they see international customer experience, how they experience what our international customers from the different market regions, what is important to them and then how we can make this into a global product. Ultimately, we need to serve everyone because our mission is to be the best connecting airline internationally. We connect people. So with that mission no one better connects the world,  that is how we call it internally.

What does it mean to your customers?

We need to understand what that means for customers in the different markets. So there has to be a global approach. Second, there is a lot of focus on our side now on a premium experience and I will come to this a little bit later what we think this means. A lot of this was looking into how through a digital approach we can personalise the experience for you because not every customer is the same. And then premium experience in general, you immediately think about the front of the cabin. True, but you can also have a premium experience in other parts of the cabin as well. It just means different things and that’s how we look at premium experience. But there is a focus on that premium experience. The last but not least, we have been able to really create great financial results across the last years, I would say over the last years. That allows us to reinvest money into our products. We will talk about some of this fleet. For instance, I flew back from Paris yesterday on a new fleet type which is the Airbus 330-900. This is the same airplane that is being used from JFK to Lagos. It is the newest addition to our wide-body fleet. We will talk about this airplane a little more later on. This airplane is the newest addition to our wide-body fleet. It comes with two really great benefits. Number one, it has a really high performance. It is very sustainable. So you get more load for less fuel which is really important for a market like Lagos. The second real benefit is it comes with a brand new interior. You recognise later on, you see in the cabins throughout the different products. This is the same plane we are using to Paris which is one of our biggest international markets overall. So that gives you an idea of why we think the Lagos market is so important for us. Now we go one level down. What does that mean tactical level, more detail, what are we driving here? It all starts with the first layer that customers experience and that they expect which is operational excellence. What you want to experience is your flight leaves on time, your flight arrives on time, it is a safe operation and it is clean. We are expanding on how we communicate with you through our in-flight entertainment system. But this is something that we are continuously working on because there are opportunities for us like for any other airline. The operations are so complex.

You cancelled your flight last  January 13, 2025 because of sudden change in weather because it snowed heavily in Atlanta, how were you able to reach your Nigerian customers in less than 24 hours to intimate them about the situation and to avoid chaos at the airport?

It’s really something that we are even continuously trying to improve. Because with new technology, there are new opportunities for us to be even more surgical and more precise in the information that we provide to you. The key in this process is our app. Through our app, we get to know you better.

How were you able to also manage the passengers that were supposed to travel a day before and the new ones and taking care of the backlog within a very short period?

This is where our partner network comes into play as well. If you think about this, the day before, we had two options. The day before, let’s say a flight is going to be delayed or cancelled. So you move those passengers to the next day. Well, technically on the next day you only have one flight. So you double the capacity. So there are two options. First, what you do is you try to see on our partner network what are the capacities that we can use. And then can we rebook the customers so they don’t need to even wait a full day. That’s the first thing that you do. The second thing that we do is if that backlog becomes too big, do we need to set up, we call this an extra section, which basically is we bring an airplane in and we can use this, for instance, also to bring in cargo and other things. So it’s not just an empty airplane that flies and pollutes the environment. It is a flight that we can use for commercial purposes and then help get that backlog that, for instance, in this case would be in Lagos, to get the customers on their way. There are two options. I would say 95 per cent of the time option one is very successful, but option two is in our toolbox and we use it, not just for Lagos but for other markets as well.

Are you looking at partnering with any Nigerian carrier?

Let us not take that away from our alliances team, because they are evaluating partnerships and options all the time. Certainly not just, I mentioned, our joint venture partners before.  Delta does have a 360 strategy, to your point, on which we evaluate all the carriers, basically, across the world. Does it make sense to partner with them? Sometimes it is just a very basic introductory relationship. For example, airline baggage. I hope you have a baggage agreement where we’ll at least make sure that your baggage can be transported seamlessly between Delta and the other carriers.  From there, I can end up evolving, perhaps, into a codeshare partnership. The ultimate holy grail is basically, when you’re talking about it, an immunised joint venture partnership.  That takes a lot of work. That takes governments agreeing to let airlines do it. I see you nodding your head. For example, in East Africa, we have a partnership with Kenya Airlines. So there’s precedent set there, as far as Delta having strong partnerships with flight carriers in Africa. I think for West Africa, and this is where I am not necessarily the subject matter expert, so I think it is a good takeaway. We will double check with our alliance’s leadership team, as far as what their point of view is on West Africa.

What is your general view about the Nigerian market?

But my personal opinion is that it’s just a complicated market, but what makes it a little bit simpler, especially as far as the Lagos market goes, is that the population is huge, right? It’s such a, from a population center in Africa, better than at the top, right? So because of that, we’re able to have that robust demand to where we feel like we can, if we plan it appropriately, fill our seats and our flights, or just on that local Lagos market. And then again, back to my earlier point, as far as when you’re out over Atlanta, you can connect with 200 other cities. So that’s a huge catchment area to flow over Atlanta to come to Lagos. Does it make financial sense to where we may want to explore also being able to smoke out from Lagos and fly to smaller mid-sized communities in Nigeria. When you look to do that, the good news is that you increase your catchment area. You know that, okay, now there’s lots of other small mid-sized communities in Nigeria that I can target, and that’s the good news. The bad news or the tough part is, but it gets expensive too when you’re talking about money flows and having to pay another airline, and what makes the most sense. We have this debate, discussion all the time at Delta, and all airlines do as far as, do I want to focus on the local market, we call it, or do I want to focus on the flow markets? when I focus on the flow markets, do we want it to be in both countries or just one country? Because the more you go, we kind of call it behind and beyond. So like in this case, it’d be like behind Lagos with small mid-sized communities in Nigeria, flow to Lagos, fly to the US, and then we are going to go beyond cities across the US. You know, as you take that price of the ticket and you segment it out over lots of different flight lengths, it gets expensive and it diminishes the value of the ticket. So it’s just from an airline economics perspective, it’s like you always want to maximize your customer base and try to create as many opportunities for them to buy a ticket as possible. It’s just sometimes financially we have to evaluate is that the best decision for the health of the flyer. Abuja is a good example of that. I say small mid-sized, Abuja is not small mid-sized, it’s a huge city, right? So we’ve been in that market.Certainly in Delta, I had a huge vested interest in launching that market and doing all possible to make it work and we were there for many years. I know we are not there now, but who knows where the future takes us as well too. There’s precedent that we’ve been there in the past, so I’m like, so time will tell. Right now, no current plans to go back with Delta to Abuja, but you never know where the future takes us.

Wole Shadare