Article-60 New Aircraft For Point To Point Flights

[JayBrian]

I saw this posted on flyertalk, may be of interest.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/travel...844/detail.html

Jay

 

[shaka]

They do not have the money to compete with Southwest is absolutely right. They are absolutely kidding themselves if they are going to try and beat Herb at his own game. The brain trust better come up with something else and fast!!!!!!!!!

 

[MarkMyWords]

Does anyone remember all of the point to point flying that we used to do? I specifically remember being at a Rakesh Road Show hearing him say how we needed to reinforce our strength at the hubs and stop all this "Goofy Flying". Gee, could it be another blunder by the Wolfman? :angry: There were so many markets that we were the #1 carrier in, but now we have given all that to someone else. Pathetic.

Why can't they start with rolling the PHL hub and suppliment the point-to-point flying later. To me the cost savings of rolling PHL are huge! It would be a great place to start.

 

[Flying Titan]

Does anyone remember all of the point to point flying that we used to do? I specifically remember being at a Rakesh Road Show hearing him say how we needed to reinforce our strength at the hubs and stop all this "Goofy Flying". Gee, could it be another blunder by the Wolfman? :angry: There were so many markets that we were the #1 carrier in, but now we have given all that to someone else. Pathetic.

Why can't they start with rolling the PHL hub and suppliment the point-to-point flying later. To me the cost savings of rolling PHL are huge! It would be a great place to start.

Mark -
I couldn't agree with you more. US needs to make much more efficient use of its hubs. Rolling hubs should be the norm for US and every other hub-spoke operation. It's the quickest way to reduce costs through marked efficiency improvements while increasing revenue at the same time. Oh, by the way, nobody's pay check would have to be cut to do it.

Having said that, this point-to-point think makes a lot of sense on certain routes. NE to Florida routes are one example. Some of the secondary cities in the northeast have tremendous travel to MCO, MIA, TPA, etc. While these are not high-fare routes, they are high volume routes. With the reduced costs that come from changes like rolling hubs and the concessions that have already been made, it would seem that US can now make money on routes that were once unprofitable even with high load factors.

The "focus cities" of BOS and LGA are also ripe for more point-to-point mainline flying. The facilities are outstanding in both cities and, if US is going to survive, it's time to set this carrier apart with some non-stops that are beyond the range of Dash-8s.

 

[LOVDPIEDMONT]

There were so many markets that we were the #1 carrier in, but now we have given all that to someone else.

The "Florida Shuttle" dominated the state before anyone in Florida ever heard of SW. Great schedules that allowed me to travel F28's to all of the major cities and return the same day.

Now, I can't fly US if I try to. One B1900 a day TPA-PBI? And forget about travel to from TPA to JAX, FLL, APF or RSW.

 

[funguy2]

If UAIR cannot make point-to-point systems from DCA and LGA work, how would they make point-to-point work from ORF?

Makes no sense.

 

[28yearsnojob]

point to point with the hubs never happen unless we work for 2.00hr
and lease gates for 1.00 a month

 

[Kev3188]

28 years--

Actually, point to point in conjunction with hub service *could* work with out anymore paycuts or work rule changes. Think about it- The ramp gets paid the same wether they work 5 flts. a shift, or 10. Same for the CSA group. Aircraft utilization goes up as well. I'll give you an example: At my station, NW leases 3 gates, and has 4 departures a day (soon to be back to 5). WN leases 4 gates, and has 33 departures. So while I might work 3 total flights in one shift, they're doing 15-20. By the way, you probably already know this, but WN's ramp makes more than both U or NW at top out. More productivity=lower CASM. Planes continuosly moving=revenue.The key of course, would be to see if U's current mgmt. could pull it off.

 

[28yearsnojob]

3188
small cities wor maybe 1jet 3express a shift pretty hard to pay that kind of money wiyh no that much going on

 

[Kev3188]

28 years--

I would also hope that with extra flights coming and going that further stations would avoid the dreaded "Mainline Express."
By the way, once a station is expressed, is it possible to return to mainline status, or is it permanent, regardless of daily mainline departures?

 

[NVFlyer]

I miss the old US BWI - PVD point to point. I'm forced to fly Southworst unless I connect in PHL or LGA.
US1

 

[Bear96]

I miss the old US BWI - PVD point to point. I'm forced to fly Southworst unless I connect in PHL or LGA.
US1

But wasn't BWI a hub? By definition, a segment where one end is at a hub is not point-to-point.

Maybe there was a time as BWI was shrinking and no longer officially a "hub" the PVD flight was still retained, but the only reason the flight existed in the first place was because BWI was at least a hub at the time they started that service.

 

[ktflyhome]

To many this might sound like a realy dumb question.....but what exactly do you mean by a "rolling Hub"?? :huh:

 

[delldude]

To many this might sound like a realy dumb question.....but what exactly do you mean by a "rolling Hub"?? :huh:

flights tend to "roll in" and out most of the day compared to huge blocks of a/c coming and going in blocks......uses work force more eficiently cuts idle time between blocks....

 

[ktflyhome]

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. Why have they done it in blocks? :huh: