DOT give Final Approval for LAX-MEX

[topDawg]

bet this turns into a 15 page pissing contest mostly made up of fanboys and people who have nothing to do with AA/AS or DL. Any takers?

Good for Delta if it starts flying LAX-MEX at some point, and wants to dump even more superfluous capacity into yet another already-well-served market in which it needs to strategically invest to keep up with competitors.  Nobody really cares much except Delta's internet discussion forum P.R. department.
 
Back here in reality, AA will be flying this route within 90 days, regardless of when Delta does or doesn't start service, and/or does or doesn't have some form of antitrust-immunized alliance with Aeromexico to jointly coordinate fares or schedules, and/or whether Delta does or doesn't sue the DOT.  In the meantime, I suspect AA is far more focused on continuing to extend its leading position at LAX, including continuing to grow its international presence at the airport - as it has been doing (with two new flights to Latin America launching this week).

someone is WTing hard today. 
 

DL WILL fly LAX-MEX at some point.

If DL wants to increase flights including to PVG and MEX, it is capacity dumping.

If AA wants to, it is market demand according to your jilted view of the world.

The market, however, values DL's service more than AA's which is why DL's average fares are higher.

The REALITY is that AA's capacity is excess and AA will get at best a couple month headstart on its LAX-MEX service which DL will start as well.

lol don't like it when someone takes your tag line eh? 

 

[FWAAA]

Even with the addition of two flights by AA, DL will still be the largest int'l carrier at LAX including to Asia where AA seemed so sure it could build its own presence.

Between Delta and American, which airline reported (to RITA) higher net income from the Pacific region for 2014?

Delta, with Pacific net income of $68 million? No, it was American, with Pacific net income of $185 million, more than double the DL Pacific profits for 2014. And that was AA's first year out of bankruptcy.

Looks like AA's Pacific build-up surpassed the profits of the long-standing DL (and NW) LAX-Asia schedule. How can that be?

Yes, I'm well aware that the DL figure includes the fourth quarter special items, primarily the non-cash mark-to-market losses on fuel hedging contracts settling in future periods. By the same token, AA's gigantic losses in prior years also included, in some periods, non-cash write-downs. Until recently, AA's last net profit was in 2007, so its regional results reported to RITA also showed losses. Accordingly, that data is not a reliable indicator of the health of individual regions.

 

[DNTULSA]

You guys just don't understand;
 
If Delta does it, it's good!
 
If anyone else does it, it's bad!

 

[WorldTraveler]

I have noted that AA managed to report a profit across the Pacific... and yet AA reported the largest loss in a global region of any airline in years - in Latin America.

So, AA's dozens and dozens of aircraft flying to Latin America generated 7X the loss that DL generated flying to Asia but it is ok that AA has not pulled out airplanes out of Latin America by the score but DL is criminally negligent for adding a flight from LAX to PVG?

and AA's 2014 losses in Latin America are not driven by any particularly significant one time items. that's a real loss. and a real large one.

btw, what region do you think MEX reports in?

 

[Kev3188]

bet this turns into a 15 page pissing contest mostly made up of fanboys and people who have nothing to do with AA/AS or DL. Any takers?

Lol. Hell no.

 

[WorldTraveler]

no reason anything should be a pissing contest unless people here don't want to accept basic facts.

Specific to this case, AA is adding one additional frequency to the market and is doing so just a few months before DL will be able to add its own route.

DL clearly had an interest in delaying AA's ability to start the route and they did that by its filing. Given that AA will be starting the route during the fall instead of the summer, it keeps some additional capacity out of the market a little longer.

 

[FWAAA]

and AA's 2014 losses in Latin America are not driven by any particularly significant one time items. that's a real loss. and a real large one.

It absolutely is a real large loss. But so what? The substantial decline in profits in Latin America in 2014 did not prevent AA from reporting record profits for the year.

Both airlines had record years, despite weakness in Pacific (for DL) and weakness in Latin America for both (DL reported losses in Latin America in all four quarters). Excluding special items, AA reported $4.2 billion in net profits, in its first year out of bankruptcy. DL reported $4.5 billion, or 7% more than AA's profits.

 

[WorldTraveler]

ALL airlines are recording very strong profits.

It doesn't change that there are some major real bad sucky parts of every carrier's network... it just far exceeds the losses that DL or any other carrier has recorded on the Pacific where some people were convinced the falling yen would send the largest carriers in Japan into the toilet - at least those that weren't allied with the mighty AA.

AA's losses in Latin America - where MEX is located - is far larger than DL's losses in Asia and Latin America combined. There simply is no sugar coating that reality.

Yes, the airlines are reporting record profits and low fuel prices are providing a window to build their presence in other parts of the world.

the problem for AA is that its largest region is not only seeing much greater competition but also suffering currency headwinds that are far larger than what has occurred in any other region in such a short period of time.

 

[commavia]

No need for a "pissing contest" - of any number of pages.  Reality is perfectly sufficient.  And the reality is that AA will soon be flying LAX-MEX, regardless of what Delta does or doesn't decide do if the U.S. and Mexico get Open Skies, and in any event AA is and will still, by September, be LAX's largest airline with a comprehensive network of nonstop domestic and international destinations.

 

[topDawg]

No need for a "pissing contest" - of any number of pages.  Reality is perfectly sufficient.  And the reality is that AA will soon be flying LAX-MEX, regardless of what Delta does or doesn't decide do if the U.S. and Mexico get Open Skies, and in any event AA is and will still, by September, be LAX's largest airline with a comprehensive network of nonstop domestic and international destinations.

Good for AA? 

 

[WorldTraveler]

No need for a "pissing contest" - of any number of pages.  Reality is perfectly sufficient.  And the reality is that AA will soon be flying LAX-MEX, regardless of what Delta does or doesn't decide do if the U.S. and Mexico get Open Skies, and in any event AA is and will still, by September, be LAX's largest airline with a comprehensive network of nonstop domestic and international destinations.

no one has ever argued that AA won't be the largest carrier at LAX.

what you have a real hard time admitting is that DL is the largest int'l carrier and what little lead they gain with LAX-MEX will evaporate as soon as DL starts its own service in the same market.

DL is simply growing LAX faster than AA.

btw, DL's latest market to add from LAX is TUS.

am I right that AA does not fly that market nonstop?

 

[700UW]

Four Flights a day on AA.

 

[FWAAA]

btw, DL's latest market to add from LAX is TUS.

am I right that AA does not fly that market nonstop?

Nope, as 700UW pointed out.

It started April 5, 2011, with three daily 50-seaters. Same day as AA began LAX to PVG, OKC, BOI, ELP, DEN, ABQ, SLC, PHX, SMF and IAH.

 

[WorldTraveler]

ok... thanks... so will DL b the only airline offering a first class product in the market in order to feed DL's int'l and long haul flights?

 

[LD3]

ok... thanks... so will DL b the only airline offering a first class product in the market in order to feed DL's int'l and long haul flights?

You are pathetic.... you couldn't leave it at 'thanks'