Can someone please help me understand how Delta thinks they will be successful, given the pricing for flights from SOP? Recently, I decided I would price a trip in September to see my aunt who lives near Spokane, Wash.

Being mindful that major airline service would be a good thing for us to have here in Pinehurst, I went to the Delta Web site and put in my request: SOP to GEG (Spokane) and waited while the computer did its thing. The result was quite an eye opener. Almost 14 hours of flight time and over $1800 in cost. I thought that was no great bargain.

So I went back to an airline that I knew flew to Spokane, Northwest, departing from RDU and going through Minneapolis. Flight times of about 7 hours at a cost of less than $400! And then to be fair to Delta, I looked at Delta from RDU to GEG and what a surprise I received: Again about 7 hours of flight time and for a cost of less than $300!

If this is an example of the "special introductory fares" that Delta is offering from SOP, I suspect that we should not get too used to having regular air service into our local airport.

Patrick J. Henry