American Airlines makes a move to dominate at LAX

[jcw]

once again - all the tweets and celebs are talking about AA

 

[WorldTraveler]

wonderful... but is AA making money providing the transcon service.

last time I checked, AA is a for-profit company.

but good for the celebs if they can find a company that is willing to provide a service to them without regard to profitability.

I'm sure there are plenty of AA employees who are happy to know they are subsidizing the lifestyles of Hollywood and NY's rich and famous.

 

[MetalMover]

hardly any mention of DL in this article
 
 

That is part of the DL master plan for industry domination. They will wait for the high rollers to tire of amenities offered by AA, B6 and Virgin then swoop in by offering hotel suites on their transcons.

 

[WorldTraveler]

DL's version of industry domination - if it exists - just might involve paying its employees better than their peers at other airlines are receiving and increasing the funding for their pensions.

If WN's strategy of paying employees well in order to build loyalty works, then only a union blowhard could argue that the same strategy wouldn't work for DL.

 

[commavia]

34. The number of gates AA will have control or preferential use over within a matter of months.
 
13. The number of daily flights AA operates between LAX and JFK.
 
1,473. The number of paragraphs expected to be written in response to this in order to explain how AA is doomed at LAX and Delta rules all - not just at LAX, but everywhere.
 
Fin.

 

[WorldTraveler]

and yet DL even with all of those gates has just 20% more seats than DL does with supposedly less than half of the gates...
and in the most recent quarter in which AA, DL, and UA all reported (AA separately from US), DL actually carried slightly more LOCAL LAX passengers and within a percent of AA's amount of local revenue.

UA in fact had a 2% local share advantage over AA on a standalone basis.

And AA's growth prospects at LAX are still largely built around pushing into other carrier's dominant markets including on the Pacific against carriers that are more than capable of making mincemeat of any US carrier that decides to take them on in their top global market.

 

[LDVAviation]

and yet DL even with all of those gates has just 20% more seats than DL does with supposedly less than half of the gates...
and in the most recent quarter in which AA, DL, and UA all reported (AA separately from US), DL actually carried slightly more LOCAL LAX passengers and within a percent of AA's amount of local revenue.

UA in fact had a 2% local share advantage over AA on a standalone basis.

And AA's growth prospects at LAX are still largely built around pushing into other carrier's dominant markets including on the Pacific against carriers that are more than capable of making mincemeat of any US carrier that decides to take them on in their top global market.

 
It has been explained to you time and time again that not all of the 30+ gates are active.  As more of them come online (in one form or another), expansion will follow.
 
... As to the silly idea of "making mincemeat," suffice it to say that AA has the muscle to push its way into certain markets on the strength of its corporate contracts (e.g., SamSung) and the ability to recapture "Fly America" traffic (e.g., very premium, defense-industry-related traffic) that currently flows to AA's Pacific codeshare partners because AA allows their flights to carry the AA code.

 

[WorldTraveler]

let us know what that plan to dominate LAX succeeds.

You will find out what DL and UA discovered year ago - that LAX is the top market for most Asian carriers and they will defend their markets to their death - and AA's too.

and the notion that AA can do with 30 gates what it can't do now is beyond silly. AA has enough gates to serve all of the top markets... every additional gate add will be to smaller markets, those that are already dominated by other carriers, and with connecting traffic - none of which will move the needle on the local LAX market.

The real reason why AA is trying to grow as much as it is in LAX is because it has no other west coast hub -actual or potential - but that doesn't and won't change that AA has no chance of every growing as large on the west coast as DL and UA can with dual west hub strategies plus a mountain west hub for each of them compared to AA's PHX and LAX hubs - even if PHX is retained.

 

[MAH4546]

Hearing Compass ERJ-175s will be heading there in the Spring. 

The Skywest CRJ-200s might be heading out; so CRJ-900s will be the smallest planes.
 
PDX with ERJ-175s and SEA with 738s. 

 

[IORFA]

Hearing Compass ERJ-175s will be heading there in the Spring. 

The Skywest CRJ-200s might be heading out; so CRJ-900s will be the smallest planes.
 
PDX with ERJ-175s and SEA with 738s.

Let's hope. Compass employees have been told all 20 planes are coming to LAX. Maybe the rumors last year were just a year too soon. Would like to know the schedule soon as Compass starts getting the planes in February.

 

[WorldTraveler]

PDX with ERJ-175s and SEA with 738s.

outstanding!

dumping even more capacity into LAX-SEA and PDX just as DL upgrades SEA to IIRC 7 or 8 mainline flights/day.

Why would AS need AA for a partner if AA just adds more capacity on top of what DL has added to the market?

 

[Kev3188]

PDX with ERJ-175s...

Nice. Any idea how many daily? I think it was mentioned on here awhile ago?

IIRC, DL is currently flying PDXLAX 5x daily with E75's...

 

[WorldTraveler]

let's be clear... MAH has been saying for years that AA would start LAX-PDX and SEA and it hasn't happened yet.

AA knows full well that jumping into those markets - no matter how important they are strategically - is a stab in the back of AS.

Maybe AA will go ahead - but the notion that DL was out to destroy AS has to be tossed out the window by anyone that thinks that adding capacity into some of AS' top markets is a good idea for AA.

 

[commavia]

Hearing Compass ERJ-175s will be heading there in the Spring. 
The Skywest CRJ-200s might be heading out; so CRJ-900s will be the smallest planes.
 
PDX with ERJ-175s and SEA with 738s. 

 
If true, that would be cool - hope it happens.
 
The 175s would provide a huge opportunity for AA to further grow and solidify its lead at LAX and continue expanding into new markets where the 175s combination of size and near-mainline comfort would be a perfect fit - including not just new markets like PDX (MCI, YYC, etc.) but also existing markets with heavy mainline competition like IAH, DEN and YVR.
 
To bring this back into the context of this overall thread - needless to say, with the potential introduction of 175s, and the introduction next year of 787s into the network, on top of the looming expansion into TBIT and headroom to grow in T4 (once TBIT frees up some gate time), T6 and the Eagle terminal, AA is going to have a tremendous opportunity to put some substantial distance between itself and its competitors - both domestically and internationally - at LAX.

 

[MAH4546]

Nice. Any idea how many daily? I think it was mentioned on here awhile ago?

IIRC, DL is currently flying PDXLAX 5x daily with E75's...

 
Last year when AA planned to enter the market PDX was going to be 4x CR7 and SEA was going to be 4x 738, IIRC. AA announced these plans at an LAX Advisory Board meeting, where it did raise concerns that the planned additions were subject to gate constraints, but those constraints are no longer.
 
Plus with ERJ-175s supposedly coming, it has the perfect plane to launch both, but I suspect SEA will be mainline.