[blockquote]
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On 10/3/2002 11:52:50 AM chipmunn wrote:
By the way, US does not have any RJs on order, although the company will shortly. Also noteworthy, Siegel said he expects to grow the US mainline fleet to between 350-400 mainline aircraft, up from the current fleet count of 301, within the next seven years.
In regard to your comment that US is being "converted to a regional carrier", in the near future the company will have the lowest hub and spoke carrier CASM, thus there is reason to believe just the opposite will occur. "It may be necessary to prune before we grow," Siegel said. However, with more RJs, greater feed, stronger hubs, the domestic code share, and the Star alliance, Siegel said as revenue returns the airline will grow its mainline Caribbean, transcon, and international markets; and will not only be a stronger East Coast competitor, but a stronger global carrier as well.
Chip
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[/blockquote]
I think we've heard this story before. I can remember many of the similar comments made by prior management teams about growing the airline. Maybe this time will be different with a lower-cost structure, but I'm not so sure.
If you think RJ's will fuel lots of mainline growth, I'd like to see your evidence to support it. Look at MEM,CVG,SLC,DFW(DL),CLE,IAD,etc and tell me how much mainline growth have these hubs seen since RJ's came around? The answer is little to none and in many cases negative.
Bad news for you Chip, but PIT and CLT are no different...in fact they are extremely alike...low O+D and heavy reliance on connecting traffic.
This doesn't even start to address the effects that low-fare carriers will have. HP's invasion of PIT or ATA's invasion of CLT (ATA is adding a 4th flight). Not to mention that the low-fare carriers are starting to overfly PIT and CLT which eats away at the connecting traffic as well.
I would take every one of Siegel's ideas with a huge amount of caution. I'm not calling him a liar, but right now Siegel is more of a salesman than a CEO. His goal is to get the employees on board and so he's pushed to tell the employees what they want to hear....often ignoring the reality.
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On 10/3/2002 11:52:50 AM chipmunn wrote:
By the way, US does not have any RJs on order, although the company will shortly. Also noteworthy, Siegel said he expects to grow the US mainline fleet to between 350-400 mainline aircraft, up from the current fleet count of 301, within the next seven years.
In regard to your comment that US is being "converted to a regional carrier", in the near future the company will have the lowest hub and spoke carrier CASM, thus there is reason to believe just the opposite will occur. "It may be necessary to prune before we grow," Siegel said. However, with more RJs, greater feed, stronger hubs, the domestic code share, and the Star alliance, Siegel said as revenue returns the airline will grow its mainline Caribbean, transcon, and international markets; and will not only be a stronger East Coast competitor, but a stronger global carrier as well.
Chip
----------------
[/blockquote]
I think we've heard this story before. I can remember many of the similar comments made by prior management teams about growing the airline. Maybe this time will be different with a lower-cost structure, but I'm not so sure.
If you think RJ's will fuel lots of mainline growth, I'd like to see your evidence to support it. Look at MEM,CVG,SLC,DFW(DL),CLE,IAD,etc and tell me how much mainline growth have these hubs seen since RJ's came around? The answer is little to none and in many cases negative.
Bad news for you Chip, but PIT and CLT are no different...in fact they are extremely alike...low O+D and heavy reliance on connecting traffic.
This doesn't even start to address the effects that low-fare carriers will have. HP's invasion of PIT or ATA's invasion of CLT (ATA is adding a 4th flight). Not to mention that the low-fare carriers are starting to overfly PIT and CLT which eats away at the connecting traffic as well.
I would take every one of Siegel's ideas with a huge amount of caution. I'm not calling him a liar, but right now Siegel is more of a salesman than a CEO. His goal is to get the employees on board and so he's pushed to tell the employees what they want to hear....often ignoring the reality.
