AAG announces changes at DCA and LGA

[700UW]

Outsmart?
 
I dont think so, AA/US is almost as large at LGA as DL.
 
And still will be larger than DL at DCA.
 
So I am still waiting for the law that says the DOJ cant do what they are doing.

 

[WorldTraveler]

uh... DL gained 125 slots at LGA for $60M or so since US ended up having to divest all the slots that US gained from DL plus the Brazil frequency.
FWAAA agrees with me on this one.

You still holding off on taking bets on the outcome of the slot proceeding? I made the offer months ago but no one has jumped in.

I guess since I actually won the last bet I made with someone on here, some are a little leery.

 

[700UW]

US didnt have to divest any Brazil slots, they actually leased a better slot from UA.
 
And US/AA is actually divesting AA's slots not PMUS.
 
Once again, where is the law that states the DOJ cant do what they are according to you?

 

[FWAAA]

they did manage to outsmart Parker with the DCA/LGA slot swap.

I wasn't involved but I saw it coming and narrated as such on here.

 

uh... DL gained 125 slots at LGA for $60M or so since US ended up having to divest all the slots that US gained from DL plus the Brazil frequency.
FWAAA agrees with me on this one.

I don't agree with you on very many things, but on the slot swap, I think we're in agreement.   
 
Had the slot swap not happened,  new merged US-AA would have had far more than 50% of the LGA slots and thus would have had to divest a bunch of them, down to at least 50% if not farther.   As it is, new AA has about 30% of the LGA slots.   
 
At DCA, new merged US-AA would have had more slots than it does now.   Might have had to divest a few of them.   
 
I think that DL still owes US a Brazil frequency.   And, of course, DL was able to replace that at no charge in the last Brazil DOT proceeding, so that didn't ultimately cost Delta anything.    Oh, yes, DL threw in a measly $65 million or so in cash.   
 
The only rationalization for the slot swap that I can imagine is that by making DL an offer it couldn't refuse, US ended up handing DL a huge number of LGA slots rather than being forced to divest them to Low-Fare new entrant carriers in the merger.    If we assume that DL is a "friendlier" competitor in NYC than B6, WN, VX,  NK, F9 and any others that I omitted, then the slot swap makes sorta sense.   
 
But the facts don't seem to support that theory, as DL immediately began competing to AA's strongest strongholds from LGA, like MIA and DFW and others.   DL is still working to increase the average fares it is getting to those cities, but its low fares have given it fairly big market shares in those markets.   Far from shying away from competing against new AA, Delta has gone after AA markets.   Might have been a better idea (from new AA's perspective) if WN ended up with more of the LGA slots rather than DL.   
 
The mind-boggling thing is that last week,  new AA announced a return from LGA to many of the small and medium sized markets it abandoned to DL as a result of the slot swap.   ILM?  RIC? ROA?  CHO?    Crankyflier had an insightful column on that last week when he pointed out that Parker is going after the residents of those small towns who need to travel to NYC rather than the NYC-originating passengers.    Otherwise, he wouldn't be cancelling LGA-ATL, LGA-MSP and LGA-CLE;   instead,  he would have kept those and started flights like LGA-HOU. 
 
The US faithful/Doug Parker fans swear up and down that Parker eschews competition with UA and DL.   When it was just US, that might have made some sense.   Now that's running the biggest airline in the world, he's still running away from competing with UA and DL.   If not now, then when?    

 

[WorldTraveler]

DL does owe US a Brazil frequency... but DL has been awarded a new frequency eff Oct 2014 so the Brazil part of the slot swap had no cost to DL.
to
I think you are absolutely right that US might have seen DL as a friendlier competitor to have to divest to instead of the LCCs.... which makes all of the hyperbole so many on here have said about trying to block DL from gaining any slots to fly RJs to small/medium sized cities but yet are content to have B6 or WN to fly mainline jets in markets that will be fully competitive with AA/US.

DL's average fares in its top AA competitive markets - ORD, DFW, and MIA - are very comparable to AA. IN fact, in LGA-ORD, DL and UA's average fares are higher than AA's which is taking a volume strategy.

And we have no idea how low WN will go with fares but they aren't coming in without cutting them; the question is how quickly they start coming back up. And again, DL is using large RJs in ORD and DFW and mainline to MIA. WN will be all mainline.

 

[700UW]

WestJet has said they bid on the five remaining slot pairs at DCA.

 

[700UW]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/02/19/virgin-america-claims-some-of-aas-slots-at-dcs-reagan/5615993/
 
VX gets the remaining slots at DCA.

 

[robbedagain]

thats gonna upset wt there 700!     itll be quite interesting to see where vx will fly from dca  unless they get exempt to fly cross country

 

[700UW]

He is probably hunkered down with Delta's legal team helping them file the lawsuit to get all the slots.

 

[MetalMover]

I can't believe the all great and might DL has allowed this to happen.
What do you mean DL didnt get any slots?

 

[WorldTraveler]

thats gonna upset wt there 700!     itll be quite interesting to see where vx will fly from dca  unless they get exempt to fly cross country

Was out celebrating something from the non-airline world, thank you, though.

since VX's mid-continent cities are in DFW and ORD, the chances are fairly high that these will be used to add service on AA competitive routes.

 

[MetalMover]

Was out celebrating something from the non-airline world, thank you, though.

since VX's mid-continent cities are in DFW and ORD, the chances are fairly high that these will be used to add service on AA competitive routes.

Gee, for someone is celebrating from the non-airline world, you sure are engrossed in everything Delta.

 

[700UW]

I heard they are gonna fly LGA-ATL-SFO-LAX and DCA-ATL-SFO-LAX.
 

 

[MetalMover]

I heard they are gonna fly LGA-ATL-SFO-LAX and DCA-ATL-SFO-LAX.
 

ATL? Delta country?

 

[robbedagain]

wt gonna be the pilot?  lol