Delta seeks entertainment business with invite-only 'party plane'

LOS ANGELES – Everyone on Delta Air Lines' 11:30 a.m. flight Friday from Los Angeles to the South by Southwest festival will get expedited security processing, complimentary cocktails and a chance to win first-class tickets to London and New York.

This invitation-only junket to Austin, Texas, is part of Delta's bid to grab more of the entertainment industry's travel business, which the carrier estimates is worth $1 billion a year.

The hand-picked highfliers paid $247 each to rub shoulders and share armrests on a new Boeing 737-900ER. Delta hasn't identified the passengers, but when it dispatched a special jetliner to February's Sundance Film Festival, fliers included actors Kristen Wiig and Emile Hirsch.

"It was a party plane," said Gary Michael Walters, chief executive of Bold Films, a producer of "Whiplash," the Oscar-winning movie. "It was very much a club of people who are significant players in the business. To have them all pre-assembled, it jump-started the film festival for me."

Delta, the world's third-largest airline, runs what it calls its "festival shuttle" with help from United Talent Agency, whose clients include actors Angelina Jolie and Benedict Cumberbatch. The flight to the South by Southwest music, technology and film festival is intended to show Hollywood there's a worthy alternative to American Airlines, the world's No. 1 carrier, and No. 2 United Airlines.

"The whole goal is about going after a really lucrative and very, very large and very, very unique revenue set," said Ranjan Goswami, a vice president of sales for Delta.

Delta hired United Talent to open doors in Hollywood and help decide who to invite to fly. Chris Day, a spokesman for the agency, said the shuttles have showcased the airline and "created a valuable halo effect."

"Imaginative marketing can work," said Craig Jenks, president of New York-based consulting firm Airline-Aircraft Projects. "Delta sees an opportunity to take market share and they're taking their shots."

Laura Masvidal, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, declined to comment on Delta's shuttle gambit but suggested in an e-mail the carrier isn't worried.

"American is Hollywood's preferred airline at LAX," Masvidal said. "Our employees know how to deliver an elegant, private experience for our most scrupulous customers and have been doing so for decades."

The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline sells the most expensive domestic ticket in the country, for a private front-cabin berth to New York from Los Angeles and San Francisco and back on a specially configured Airbus Group A321 jetliner. The price: more than $8,000. That's a budget-buster for most road warriors but not unheard of for a senior figure in entertainment or media.

Los Angeles-New York is the most lucrative domestic route for the U.S. industry. Goswami said Delta has it sights set on getting a bigger piece of it.

In October, it introduced a new nonstop to London in a partnership with Virgin Atlantic Airways, and it has since added flights to Vancouver, the Canadian city that's a favorite of Hollywood studios and where they've shot dozens of movies and shows, including "The Interview" and "Fifty Shades of Grey."

"Everything we are doing is centered around earning more of that very, very good quality business," Goswami said. "They have productions that are on schedules, they have to have good air travel quality, and we aim to provide that with all the customized services that come with it."

Jason Yeh, a senior associate at the venture capital firm Greycroft Partners who'll be on the plane to Austin, said he could see how the trip might lure frequent fliers.