<p>A blistering letter from the head of the Piedmont-Triad Airport Authority complains that Delta Air Lines charges inflated rates for travel from the airport and is driving down the number of passengers there.</p><p>In a letter faxed Thursday to Delta's chairman and chief executive officer, Henry Isaacson complained that the airline's "discriminatory pricing policy" is undermining the airport's business.</p><p>"As a result of Delta's pricing and inventory policies at (Piedmont Triad International Airport)," he wrote, "your traffic has plummeted at the airport. And, because you have been the largest carrier at GSO, the airport's traffic has dropped significantly."</p><p>Isaacson told Delta chief Gerald Grinstein that he has met "numerous times" with Delta staff and "we feel that this problem now needs your personal attention."</p><p>The letter was also sent to the mayors of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.</p><p>Isaacson said he was moved to write because he believes about 2,300 people a day from the Greensboro market drive to the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham airports, each about an hour and a half away, to take advantage of markedly lower fares.</p><p>"Not a day goes by that I don't hear a complaint from people about the fares at our airport versus Raleigh-Durham, and I think I can lay a good part of that blame at Delta's feet," he told the News & Record of Greensboro.</p><p>A Delta spokeswoman said the company's prices are based on what the market will bear.</p><p>"Delta sets its prices based on what the local market will bear, and its fares are competitive with other airlines serving Greensboro," Gina Laughlin said.</p><p>She said Grinstein had not seen the letter Thursday because he was out of town.</p><p>Grinstein was in New York on Thursday, where he said he plans to step down soon after the nation's No. 3 carrier emerges from bankruptcy protection _ projected for the first half of 2007.</p><p>He also announced expanded and new international service, part of Delta's continuing makeover into an international-focused carrier.</p><p>Boardings at the Piedmont-Triad International Airport are down 17 percent, or 150,305 passengers, through Aug. 31 this year, compared with the same period in 2005. Delta accounts for 73 percent of PTI's decline, with its boardings down nearly 32 percent through Aug. 31.</p><p>Isaacson compared Delta fares to four destinations from Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and Piedmont-Triad airports.</p><p>A one-day trip to Boston on Dec. 6 cost $798 from Greensboro, compared to $158 from Raleigh-Durham and $262 from Charlotte. To New York's LaGuardia Airport, a trip on the same day cost $768 from Greensboro, $158 from Raleigh-Durham and $98 from Charlotte.</p><p>Laughlin said the examples don't account for discount fares. She said that, since Delta cut its capacity earlier this year as part of a financial reorganization, fewer of those fares are available on each flight and can sell out quickly.</p><p>Isaacson began meeting with officials of Delta, US Airways and other airlines serving the Greensboro airport two years ago, when AirTran left the airport. The carrier was the last large low-fare airline to serve Piedmont-Triad.</p><p>"We went to see US Airways. They did something about it. I told Delta. It just didn't resonate," he said. "I think our citizens in the Triad deserve better than to be mistreated by the airlines just because we don't have a low-fare carrier here."</p><p>Keith Debbage, an aviation analyst and geography professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, said Isaacson is taking a risk by publicizing the fare differences, but the size of those differences is itself troubling.</p><p>"I'm shocked to see such a massive price difference by one airline to the same destination from three neighboring airports," Debbage told the Winston-Salem Journal. "It sounds to me that Delta is a business that no longer wants to do competitive business in the Triad."</p>
