Connecting Cities - East to West

[NYPD]

Anyone have any information or timetable about the possibility of eventually connecting cities that are only served by the west or east hubs only? Example...San Antonio is serviced from the west but not the east. Many of these cities are major cities that surely have a high volume of traffic. I've noticed that there are many more "west" cities that are not connected to the east coast hubs (CLT, PHL, PIT) than there are "east" cities not connected to west coast hubs (PHX, LAS).

Cities that fall into this category:

Oklahoma City
Omaha
Des Moines
New Orleans
Austin
El Paso
Salt Lake City

 

[PBI2FLL]

None of the above stations, except for maybe SLC, would have enough O&D to support a successful hub. SLC, of course, already has DL.

 

[US1YFARE]

None of the above stations, except for maybe SLC, would have enough O&D to support a successful hub. SLC, of course, already has DL.

I don't think that is the question. I think the OP is asking whether or not PHL or CLT will have direct service to cities it did not serve in the past that HP served.

I am surprised PHL doesn't have express service to DSM and OMA.

 

[gso2pit]

Anyone have any information or timetable about the possibility of eventually connecting cities that are only served by the west or east hubs only? Example...San Antonio is serviced from the west but not the east. Many of these cities are major cities that surely have a high volume of traffic. I've noticed that there are many more "west" cities that are not connected to the east coast hubs (CLT, PHL, PIT) than there are "east" cities not connected to west coast hubs (PHX, LAS).

Cities that fall into this category:

Oklahoma City
Omaha
Des Moines
New Orleans
Austin
El Paso
Salt Lake City

MSY was served by HP pre-Katrina. I read somewhere that MSY-PHX/PIT/LAS will return in late spring-early summer 2007.

As for the other cities, you probably won't see too many "dots" connected until operational integration because it's simply too costly for US to open a new station out there.

 

[autofixer]

Some were served by U in the past out of PIT. I understand that that is one of the stated reasons for the E190; to go back to these cities. However, I would not be suprised to see management reverse their stated goal and start using them on hub to hub service and never re-enter these markets.

 

[PHL]

Getting PHL-PDX was a good start.

 

[markkus757]

'east' cities without nonstops to 'west' hubs:

PVD
MHT
JAX
BUF
ROC
SYR
ALB
PBI
RIC
ORF

several more 'smaller' markets

 

[Non Rev]

Getting PHL-PDX was a good start.

Was PHL-PDX successful?

 

[Whatnow?]

None of the above stations, except for maybe SLC, would have enough O&D to support a successful hub. SLC, of course, already has DL.

Interestingly enough as of the 2005 census statistics show in the top 50 largest US cities without their total Metro population numbers rank those cities mentioned above as

San Antonio-7th largest in the US
Austin-16th
El Paso-21st
Oklahoma City-31st
Omaha-43rd

Again these are population numbers of just the cities proper and not their metro statistics which would be substantially larger. PIT was the 57th largest city in the US and CLT was the 20th.....so most of the cities above are quite larger than 2 of our hub cities. Also, service was to begin back to SAT, AUS, & ABQ from CLT prior to the 2nd Bankruptcy.

 

[TechBoy]

Interestingly enough as of the 2005 census statistics show in the top 50 largest US cities without their total Metro population numbers rank those cities mentioned above as

San Antonio-7th largest in the US
Austin-16th
El Paso-21st
Oklahoma City-31st
Omaha-43rd

Again these are population numbers of just the cities proper and not their metro statistics which would be substantially larger. PIT was the 57th largest city in the US and CLT was the 20th.....so most of the cities above are quite larger than 2 of our hub cities. Also, service was to begin back to SAT, AUS, & ABQ from CLT prior to the 2nd Bankruptcy.

You are right that the city populations are meaningless. The metro area figures is a much stronger indication of potential air traffic. So let's see what the 2000 census says:

San Antonio - 30th (1.7m)
Austin - 39th (1.25m)
El Paso - not in top 50
Oklahoma City - 47th (1.16m)
Omaha - not in top 50

Philadelphia - 6th (5.8m)
Pittsburgh - 19th (2.5m)
Charlotte - 26th (1.9m)

 

[Whatnow?]

My whole point to the statement made by pbi2fll was that the market can definitely provide the O&D to support service. In AUS alone for September UAL added a 3rd nonstop to Dulles and a 5th nonstop to Denver. CAL also added a 3rd nonstop to EWR. American is upgrading 2 of it's 3 nonstops to SJC from M88 to 757's. And the YTD traffic up to September was just under 6.5 million passengers. I think that there is definitely a market to serve down there.

 

[FCYTravis]

There are lots of West cities which could really use non-stops east, and could probably support them.

My personal hope is for at least a 1x red-eye OAK-CLT... but I'm just gonna have to keep dreaming.

 

[gso-crew]

'east' cities without nonstops to 'west' hubs:

PVD
MHT
JAX
BUF
ROC
SYR
ALB
PBI
RIC
ORF

several more 'smaller' markets

According to an article in the local GSO newspaper, LAS is the 4th largest travel destination for GSO passengers. Those number are for O&D only. Add a few connections and you could fill one or two up daily.

A GSO/LAS with conns to the west coast could take a chunk out of UA's GSO/ORD, AA's GSO/DFW and DL's GSO/ATL west coast conning flights.

 

[Flying Titan]

Several markets on the list could support non-stops to western hubs...GSO included. All four of the upstate NY markets could support a daily non-stop to PHX or LAS.

Southwest has had success with BUF-PHX and its ALB-LAS non-stop, too. Of course, the problem for US is available aircraft. I don't think US has enough planes to start connecting these markets with their new hubs yet.

 

[nycbusdriver]

...I don't think US has enough planes to start connecting these markets with their new hubs yet.

...or the cojones to start serving a SWA market.