American Airlines plans to ‘rebank’ its Dallas/Fort Worth Airport hub this spring

[WorldTraveler]

AA hiring 250 at ORD, check out Chicago tribune from dec 18th, y'll are so negative. AA Miami moving records amount of pax through hub. This isn't the AA of Carty or Arpey, have a little faith, it's not good to have so much hate for something.



how long before this turns into a anti TWU thread?

AA has added capacity at ORD as it has added large RJs and increased the number of destinations.

ORD also is a hub for two airlines so the two can fly between each other's operations.

can't do that at DFW.
 
 

If this banking strategy can work in the disaster known as mia it can probably work anywhere.  And fyi, dfw has pushback tractors on almost every single gate and typically more than enough other equipment.  And rumor is that they're in the midst of hiring 300 additional ground personnel

MIA is far smaller and much of the flights are either int'l or up and down the eastern US.

again, not so at DFW.

 

[usa1]

Use larger aircraft, reducing the overall number of flights in DFW and ORD. Shift certain connections to other hubs.
 
System wide we carry more people, make more money. 

 

[LD3]

Will the US hubs eventually change to rolling?

 

[700UW]

There not rolling they are banked, all PMUS hubs were already banked and MIA converted to banked in August.
 
With DFW and ORD to follow next.

 

[UPNAWAY]

We know this already works, US Banked all their hubs and improved performance at the same time MIA has already done the same too. AA reliability has no place but up to go. As for MX comment banks have no effect the overnight is still the same length if not longer. You might get slightly more MELs during the day but not that much, since those are already down 25% yoy there is some wiggle room for sure. WT you don't have to wait a year to admit your're wrong, just look at all the current evidence and retract your statement.

 

[diamondcutter]

AA has added capacity at ORD as it has added large RJs and increased the number of destinations.ORD also is a hub for two airlines so the two can fly between each other's operations.can't do that at DFW.  MIA is far smaller and much of the flights are either int'l or up and down the eastern US.again, not so at DFW.

So now you know more about banking flts than Robert Isom ?? Shouldn't you be writing tomorrows sermon for your church?

 

[jimntx]

I had a situation a couple of months ago where we arrived at DFW 20 minutes early.  There was a broken airplane on our gate which the captain was aware of before we landed (he advised me that our arrival gate would probably change during taxi-in).  We got to the ramp area for our gate with no re-assignment.  We then waited 40 minutes for a new gate assignment.  The captain told me that the "tow the broken plane off the gate" people and the "assign a new gate" people got into a p*ssing match over who was going to act first.
In the meantime, the passengers were getting furious about their connection time being reduced every minute we waited.
 
After we finally got a new gate assignment and the passengers deplaned, the captain just said "Expect more of this type situation when banking begins."  I hope not--particularly if connection times in general are reduced as noted earlier in this thread.

 

[700UW]

Jim,
 
I worked in CLT and we had around 600 flights a day and we were a banked hub, and of course when MX or WX hit there were issues, but otherwise it works fine and has been for years.

 

[dfw gen]

Check the departure and arrival numbers on jetlnet. Doesn't look good for the home team. Bag numbers. Ain't much better! But what do you expect from work groups with no motivation.

 

[WorldTraveler]

Check the departure and arrival numbers on jetlnet. Doesn't look good for the home team. Bag numbers. Ain't much better! But what do you expect from work groups with no motivation.

absolutely. and not terribly surprisingly, AA and AE's operational performance takes a hit whether weather is bad in DFW or not.

precisely to your point, Parker will think he is getting more revenue but when you ask employees who get paid by the hour regardless of how well the company does financially or not, the increased costs and the unwillingness of employees to work to sort out problems will take a toll.

and the pilots may not make a mistake and then ask for penance like the FAs but they realize they are getting screwed no matter what they do so will perform their work accordingly.

Parker thinks he can do at AA what he did at US without realizing that in many ways AA people will simply not blindly follow like employees did at US.

IROP recovery in a banked hub is many times harder in a banked rather than in a non-banked hub.

 

[PullUp]

Mx philosophy during the day is MEL it if possible, fix it on the overnight. Only non-MEL-able stuff gets fixed.
There are no gate holds for connecting pax. Emphasis is on closing the door at D-5 to enable an ontime push.
Questions?

 

[PullUp]

Parker thinks he can do at AA what he did at US without realizing that in many ways AA people will simply not blindly follow like employees did at US.
 

Yes they will or they will lose their jobs.

 

[MetalMover]

Yes they will or they will lose their jobs.

They have BEFORE the merger....
Do you remember what the headcount at AA was at its peak?

 

[usa1]

Parker move one of his VP's office to the PHL airport and he walked the concourse and ramp regularly .... things started working..  

 

[Kev3188]

 

Anyone who has parked in the penalty boxes while waiting for a gate at DFW (or ORD) under AA's rolling hub model for more than 10 years now (and it happens a lot) knows that this is a disaster in the making.

And I agree with boston: unless Parker goes on a spending spree to buy more pushback tractors, more baggage tugs and carts and more belt/scissor loaders (and hire a lot more people to drive them and do the heavy lifting plus many more gate agents), this isn't going to be pretty.

 
GSE is always a hot commodity in a banked hub.

When I worked in MEM, you could always tell who the transfer drivers were; they had their tug's coil wires sitting next to them on the table.