Aa Feeling B6's Pressure?

[biztraveller29]

From airliners.net:

On May 1st AA will reduce its JFK-LGB flights from 3 to 2. The free slot will be used to add a LGB-DFW flight.

On Jun 10th AA will drop the JFK-SNA route entirely. The two free slots will be used to add a SNA-DFW and a SNA-ORD flight.

Is this true? It would seem to make sense to concentrate trans-con flying at LAX, and to use slots to beef up hub flying to DFW and ORD. Does anyone think AA will soon drop LGB-JFK all together? If it happens, it will be one of the first times I can think of that an upstart LCC has successfully defended "its" turf from a major like AA. (I'm thinking here of the ghosts of Legend, Midway, Braniff, etc.).

 

[Resman1]

B6 is kicking our tail. They have two major advantages AA doesn't, happy customers and happy employees.

 

[LaBradford22]

AA (and all of the other majors) are losing their shirt on transcon routes right about now. I'm not surprised at all that AA is turning away from direct point-to-point transcon competition with B6 and moving toward using capacity at LGB and SNA to feed more into the ORD and DFW hubs. I'd have to say that the LCC's have won in the point-to-point transcon game.

 

[MiAAmi]

AA (and all of the other majors) are losing their shirt on transcon routes right about now. I'm not surprised at all that AA is turning away from direct point-to-point transcon competition with B6 and moving toward using capacity at LGB and SNA to feed more into the ORD and DFW hubs. I'd have to say that the LCC's have won in the point-to-point transcon game.

I have to question whether we are losing our shirts on the transcons. First of all b6 doesnt even fly to LAX and AA just added another nonstop in the LAX-JFK market. I would venture to guess that the transcons are still our meat and potatos right now. Although B6 has definetley made their mark and I would agree with you that AA is feeling the pressure from all the LLCs. Time will tell but I think AA has the resources to stick it out for a long while ahead.

 

[Just Plane Crazy]

B6 is kicking our tail. They have two major advantages AA doesn't, happy customers and happy employees.

You forgot a third one. CASM!!!!!

B6 has a CASM of $0.0608 vs. AA of $ 0.1015. AA operates the same routes at a 67% higher cost.

B6 has its cost, employees etc. under control. And the employees are happier to have a job and a paycheck than getting into fights they can’t win and at the end lose more than they bargained for.

 

[Ch. 12]

You forgot a third one. CASM!!!!!

B6 has a CASM of $0.0608 vs. AA of $ 0.1015. AA operates the same routes at a 67% higher cost.

B6 has its cost, employees etc. under control. And the employees are happier to have a job and a paycheck than getting into fights they can’t win and at the end lose more than they bargained for.

Are these CASMS for matching markets only? I know that JB's CASM is lower than AA's without question, but to give specific numbers that relate to vastly different structures never works with the CASM/RASM game. Other than JFK-upstate NY and a few slot-holders, JB flys only long haul where as AA has short, medium, and long...pushing their CASM up. It is apples and oranges to compare their CASMs. In fact, I am suprised b/c I would think that there would be more of a disparity between the two and I say congrats to AA for being so close on shorter stage lengths.

Now...if these figures are somehow only for the matching markets, then I apologize.

 

[downline7]

Are these CASMS for matching markets only? I know that JB's CASM is lower than AA's without question, but to give specific numbers that relate to vastly different structures never works with the CASM/RASM game. Other than JFK-upstate NY and a few slot-holders, JB flys only long haul where as AA has short, medium, and long...pushing their CASM up. It is apples and oranges to compare their CASMs. In fact, I am suprised b/c I would think that there would be more of a disparity between the two and I say congrats to AA for being so close on shorter stage lengths.

Now...if these figures are somehow only for the matching markets, then I apologize.

jB flies JFK/BOS/IAD to Florida, MSY/SJU/BQN (from JFK), and the West Coast, as well as JFK-UpstateNY/LGB-OAK&LAS short flights ... so isnt that a mix of short, medium, and long haul flying?

 

[AA191]

How is IAD-LAX these days? HP (America West) enters this city pair in June and lets not forget that HP has JFK-LAX and BOS-LAX too.

 

[Just Plane Crazy]

How is IAD-LAX these days? HP (America West) enters this city pair in June and lets not forget that HP has JFK-LAX and BOS-LAX too.

HP CASM = $ 0.0786
WN CASM = $ 0.0760

Both of them have a mix of flights and the CASM are lower than AA.

 

[LaBradford22]

Are these CASMS for matching markets only? I know that JB's CASM is lower than AA's without question, but to give specific numbers that relate to vastly different structures never works with the CASM/RASM game. Other than JFK-upstate NY and a few slot-holders, JB flys only long haul where as AA has short, medium, and long...pushing their CASM up. It is apples and oranges to compare their CASMs. In fact, I am suprised b/c I would think that there would be more of a disparity between the two and I say congrats to AA for being so close on shorter stage lengths.

These are system CASM numbers, and I can guarantee you that AA's average stage length (system-wide) is much higher than B6's. Therefore, to do an apples to apples comparison adjusted for stage length, B6 CASM would adjust downward relative to AA. So, if the B6 system-wide CASM is 67% lower than AA's, then on a particular market segment, their CASM advantage is even greater than that.

 

[AAmech]

True, but if you could break out AA's CASM for the 757's while not as low as JB's would be much lower than the system wide CASM.