Fuel for thought

[Elevation]

You must fly Barbie jets. In a bigger airplane it's more like 20 lbs per minute (737), 1200 lbs/hour, 2400 lbs/2hour delay, 342 gals of Jet A for 2 hour delay, about $1000 of Jet A at today's prices. Of course, this assumes that the Captain is pissed off at the company and leaves both engines running--and if the pilots leave the APU running too it adds more to the cost.

Your rationale that PHL makes up the cost could more easily be applied to pilots: if you're pilots are happy and invested in the company, they'll more than make up for their pay differential in fuel savings.

Now why would I assume that? I just used FOM guidance (SE taxi), what the passive aggressive do I will not comment.

 

[EyeInTheSky]

PIT is a dying city let it go in peace,

Pittsburgh forges ahead
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destination...ittsburgh_N.htm

 

[N965VJ]

It’s always amusing to me how everyone thinks Pittsburgh went down (dahn) the tubes when US pulled out of PIT. Back when US was the largest employer in Beaver County, the McDonalds by the Beaver Valley Mall went out of business. Now there’s a Starbucks within a stone’s throw of that location.

If the explosive growth of upscale retail locations is any indication, the area is doing fine, thankyouverymuch.



This post is double ROT-13 encrypted to abate the snoops in Tempe.

 

[DLFlyer31]

The point of this thread isn't just about PIT -- but other smaller cities like RDU, CVG, CLE, SLC, MEM. At what point do airlines consider putting some of their connections through these airports instead of the mega hubs? We're talking fuel going way up in price -- it has to be on the table.

Later,
Eye

Problem is that you can't make money on a hub that is relying on mostly domestic connections. How much money are you going to make flying BTV-PIT-BHM when both segments are on CRJ's?

The value in the mega hubs is that more of the passengers are O+D (better yields), more of the traffic is international (better yields) and you can use larger equipment (lower costs). With rising prices and fewer flights, even the congestion at PHL will start to wane. And realistically, the only places with real ATC delays are NYC, PHL and ORD. Some decent slot controls could easily fix NYC and ORD is being fixed as we speak.

For most smaller airports, things are going to go back to the future where a small city has nonstops to maybe four mega-hubs with most flights operated by mainline or large RJ. This is far more cost effective than having service to 10 hubs but all flights operated by CRJ's.