Abandoned Gates

[jcw]

Which airports will AA reject lease agreements on the last day of bankrupcy like US did exiting bankrupcy?

PIT, CLE, etc - For example in PIT US has plenty of gates and does not need AA gates

this would be part of the expense savings

 

[FWAAA]

Which airports will AA reject lease agreements on the last day of bankrupcy like US did exiting bankrupcy?

PIT, CLE, etc - For example in PIT US has plenty of gates and does not need AA gates

this would be part of the expense savings

Yes, AA can reject its gates at PHX, CLT, PHL and PIT, without a doubt. Those amount to practically no money at all. US shouldn't count on saving bushels of cash from those rejections. The total savings from these leases amounts to rounding errors for a $39 billion company.

You mentioned CLE. Does US have a surplus of gates it's been paying for there as well? What about CMH?

 

[Real tired]

Good question.

Here in PIT, I think AA has 4 gates at the end of D wing. US is in B wing, a good 1/2 mile walk away.

If there is a merger, I can't see them keeping those gates, and the people working them off those gates when there are still unused gates on the B wing.

A similar thing has started to happen with AirTran. They had 2 gates on the C wing, and now are starting to operate off of Southwest's gates on the A wing.

 

[necigrad]

I've gotta agree with FWAAA. All these facilities costs people talk about aren't substantially consequential. Sure the company will take the savings, but the money that matters is found in labor and fuel.

 

[jcw]

Your right on fuel and labor however every penny counts. For example, in BOS can AA and US fit into all of the gates US has in BOS?

 

[nycbusdriver]

Your right on fuel and labor however every penny counts. For example, in BOS can AA and US fit into all of the gates US has in BOS?

I don't think the US BOS gates are all that busy, so they could probably handle a fair amount of additional flights. But maybe not as many as AA has in BOS. Do you know that number?

 

[wings396]

I assume that the US terminal in LGA will be able to handle the combined operations. It's a good thing that US kept that in the slot swap with DL. I believe that at one point, it was going to DL as part of the original package.

 

[BuffaloJoe]

Why should AA give up gates in PHL? That means AA-US will have All of Terminal A-East, B and C. And Most of A-West. 3 more gates to utilize during the rush hours.

 

[wings396]

I doubt that the 3 gates in PHL will go away, since as you said US already has the rest of A East.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I assume that the US terminal in LGA will be able to handle the combined operations. It's a good thing that US kept that in the slot swap with DL. I believe that at one point, it was going to DL as part of the original package.

You're kidding, right?

 

[wings396]

No, I thought that it was under utilized quite a bit nowadays. I haven't been over there in many years, so please excuse my ignorance if I'm off on my assumption.

 

[tadjr]

I don't think the US BOS gates are all that busy, so they could probably handle a fair amount of additional flights. But maybe not as many as AA has in BOS. Do you know that number?

According to Flightstats, for this Monday AA has 31 flights.

 

[FWAAA]

AA has about 110 daily departures from LGA split between mainline and mostly 2-class RJs, and occupies concourses C and D of the central terminal. The combined US-AA won't be giving up any real estate at LGA, unless Parker has a plan to give away even more LGA slots to Delta or another carrier. Eventually, maybe AA can persuade UA to move to the US gates in Terminal C in a gate swap that would give AA more of concourse C gates. That will probably happen as part of the re-building of the central terminal.

I count 63 US departures from LGA. I doubt there's room for 110 more at the US gates.

At BOS, AA has about 31 mainline departures and operates from several gates in B North. IMO, the merged airline needs to grow in BOS, not shrink.

The merged company will have surplus gates at JFK, DFW, ORD, SFO and MIA, among others, as US will vacate its small footprint in those airports in favor of the AA terminals.

Assuming that the merged airline has to relinquish some DCA slots (a safe assumption, given the government's view that nobody should control more than 50% of DCA, and US is already there), some gates will need to be surrendered to whomever wins the inevitable DCA slot auction - dunno whether giving up some US or AA gates there would make more sense.

 

[WorldTraveler]

US can't give up its surplus gates since it is not in BK.

As for LGA, the only reasonable assumption is as FWA notes - convincing someone else w/ a smaller operation to move. Since the slot swap, the former US-only terminal at LGA has become a very busy place.
The solution to LGA could involve ATL also since UA has a split operation at ATL and AA/US would as well; neither airline is capable of operating fully alongside the other at the close-in T gates.

LAX will also be a split operation in all likelihood for a long time and may require multiple busses to connect all terminals that AA flights will use.

 

[nycbusdriver]

No, I thought that it was under utilized quite a bit nowadays. I haven't been over there in many years, so please excuse my ignorance if I'm off on my assumption.

Ok....that's why I asked.

I don't know who actually "owns", or controls, the gates at the FORMER US Airways terminal at LGA, but the entire east concourse is now Delta. The two gates between concourses are now Delta. The entire east side of the west concourse is now Delta. On the west side of the west concourse, US Airways is down to 5 gates with jetways (maybe six,) and one commuter gate (with two gate numbers) at ramp level adjacent to baggage claim. Four of the jetways are dedicated to the DCA and BOS shuttles. Everything about that terminal reeks of Delta now. Everything. When the final slot swap took place last summer, US Airways didn't even show up on the flight monitors, which were all controlled by Delta. It took several days of fighting to get Delta to allow US flights on THEIR monitors (which are the only ones in the building now.)

The terminal is no longer the slow, easy (read: empty) operation that was US Airways. It is packed with passengers. Delta passengers. There is no room for AA in that terminal unless Delta is willing to give up gates. The US Express ramp has tight parking for about a half dozen airplanes using that one ramp level gate. I doubt Eagle will fit.

But, maybe US is simply leasing gates to Delta and they can still pull them back. That would be a farsighted plan on Parker's part. I am not hopeful.