Clt-Gig Poor Loads

[BoeingBoy]

That's not a good sign for DL or US.

I tend to agree, with the small caveat that the US service is barely over two months old. I would assume that AA and CO have the best hubs for O&D with MIA and EWR and are thus able to charge higher fares. MIA, while stuck in a corner of the country for a domestic hub, is almost perfectly situated for a S America - U.S. hub and EWR serves the large O&D market of NYC.

So the other carriers have to compete more on price with US at the low end of the totem pole. It'd be interesting to know how many of even the much lower cost seats up front US actually sells.

Jim

 

[cltflyer1]

how is cargo on the clt-gig route.

 

[strangiatotheme]

how is cargo on the clt-gig route.

Non-existent from most of the load plans I've pulled.

 

[SS255]

US might do better selling codeshares on CO's South American flights out of IAH.

 

[Lloyds5]

Non-existent from most of the load plans I've pulled.

Sounds like a code share with Tam might be needed or maybe transfer the route authority to Philly and poach the New York/New Jersey Market to rely less on connections

 

[BuffaloJoe]

Sao Paulo would be alot better. From PHL, I know a few people that do South America travel and they prefer AA and connect in MIA than CLT/ATL. GRU would be the better route, but it would have to be from PHL. CLT is no gateway city. Who the heck ever heard of Charlotte that lives outside the USA unless your an NBA fan.

 

[700UW]

CLT is the third largest banking center in the world and the third largest gateway to the Caribbean.

And CLT has flights to LGW, FRA, MUC and now seasonal to CDG and FCO.

 

[N965VJ]

CLT also has NASCAR!

 

[BoeingBoy]

Most flights from any airline's hub depend on connections, just to different extents. While CO's S America flights from EWR have the greater NYC market to draw from, it undoubtedly gets connection traffic also. PHL, not having the O&D of the greater NYC area, would need even more connecting traffic than CO. So the question becomes whether US would lose enough connecting traffic by moving the flight to PHL that it would be a wash. The greater PHL market already has non-stop service available - IAD to the southwest and NYC to the northeast. PHL-GIG non-stop would undoubtedly capture some of that traffic, but whether it would be enough to offset the out of the way connection for the southeast corner of the U.S. is the question.

Of course the other question is whether the 767 has the range for PHL-GIG. The great circle distance is between PHL-ATH and CLT-HNL, but I don't know how the actual route distance would compare.

Jim

 

[cltflyer1]

CLT is the third largest banking center in the world and the third largest gateway to the Caribbean.

And CLT has flights to LGW, FRA, MUC and now seasonal to CDG and FCO.

starting this winter now year round flights to lgw, fra, muc, cdg, and fco
fco, cdg 4x week 762
muc scheduled\ for year round daily 346 starting this winter.


as soon as TAM codeshares start Usairways needs to use them.

 

[Dog Wonder]

CLT is no gateway city. Who the heck ever heard of Charlotte that lives outside the USA unless your an NBA fan.

Nobody.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Nobody.

Well, presumably those from other countries who fly to/from/through CLT. Or watch Nascar...

Jim

 

[Travelpro72]

Ok this is in no way a slam against Charlotte and all their banks and fast cars but go to Brazil and ask locals what they think of Charlotte. They may ask you, "Who is she". Please.......the flight should be out of PHL with the A330 where they actually HAVE the people that want to go there coupled with some connection traffic to make it work. I understand US wants to establish CLT as this great alternate to ATL but it's lightyears off. Good grief people.

 

[BoeingBoy]

.the flight should be out of PHL with the A330 where they actually HAVE the people that want to go there coupled with some connection traffic to make it work

Without having a flight it's impossible to tell how much traffic PHL would get from a non-stop flight to GIG. After doing some digging, however, if PHL got the same percentage of Brazil traffic as it gets for international traffic as a whole, it would be about 20 non-U.S. citizens and about half that in U.S. citizens a day each way. that's definitely more than CLT, but would still require a lot of connecting traffic to make it work.

Jim

 

[tadjr]

I dont think many people will look at a schedule/price comparison and say they arent going to connect in CLT because they've never heard of it. If the price and schedule are right, then its sold. Ask how many people coming into CLT from Europe heard of CLT before they booked their flights. Probably not a lot.

If you move the flight to PHL, then you are going to lose a lot of possible connection traffic. We put people on to GIG almost daily, but move it to PHL and you have an additional two hours (1 up/1back) added AND the joy of connecting in PHL. You would also lose a lot of single connection traffic from the South that would probably opt to connect on another carrier (DL via ATL/AA via MIA or CO via IAH) since most people are not going to fly LIT-CLT-PHL-GIG or similar. Most of the traffic connecting from the NE (with the exceptions of a couple of small commuter cities) can connect via CLT nonstop as well as PHL so you wouldn't lose them with a move to PHL, but you would lose a lot of traffic potential moving it the other way.