Hub Closure Sweepstakes

[700UW]

Dont forget what DL did to CVG also.

 

[kirkpatrick]

Kat, I felt the same way when TW joined AA in 2001.  I couldn't believe all the tiny bases.  At that time we also had a base in SEA that did nothing but NRT, and small international bases in SFO and DCA.  SFO-I was down to about 30 FAs when they closed it, IIRC.
 
When you think about it, it really doesn't take much money to install a file cabinet with mailboxes and have a base manager who doesn't have to live there, but can drop in from another base occasionally.  The reserve pool isn't very efficient, but it's a very small number of people and they occasionally get grabbed to deadhead and work trips out of other bases.  When you think of savings in hotels and TAFB, as well as the cost of paying crews 100% to deadhead, plus extended duty rigs and such, it starts to make sense.
 
MK

 

[eolesen]

Mark's right. The same goes for domestic satellites.

If you have a critical mass of people living in a city large enough to support a month's worth of crew pairings, the cost of maintaining the base can be negligible if not a positive, especially if you consider the lowered exposure to lost time from commuting gone bad...

 

[FWAAA]

This is a touchy subject but I think if the past is any indication... the new management will give it a couple of years and then proceed to cut STL, BOS, SFO, PHX, and RDU. AA/US will have no problem cutting until they get it right. It is common practice at US to just deadhead crews from other bases to fly int'l routes out of other cities...PHL-CLT-CDG for example. So I can easily see where the RDU-LHR will originate in CLT with a dead head and any BOS with a dead head out of JFK or PHL.

Is this thread about hubs closing or flight attendant bases closing?    

If I read the OP correctly, it's about the former and not the latter.   

 

[eolesen]

To be fair, those two topics go hand in hand more than just about any other discussion topic in the past 5 years.

 

[dash8roa]

I don't see PHX being a hub in a few years, DFW and LAX will take up the slack. Second tier hubs don't seem to fare well after mergers, CVG,STL,MEM,CLE, cases in point. The much talked about synergies have to come from somewhere and dropping a hub makes a big dent in labor costs and airport rental expenses.
With the new AA adopting much of the old AA systems and procedures, such as Sabre, FCFS non-rev boarding, etc, I wonder if the US award processing fee will go away, I always felt that was a slap in the face of its best customers.

 

[amtide]

Besides HUB clousures, I wonder how much work they will contract out in the near future. Aircraft Maintenance, Ramp and Passenger services ??? 

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

I suspect you'll see some changes at all the hubs over time, but nothing on the order of what UA has to do with CLE, or what DL did with MEM. There's just not a reasonable parallel (small regional hub built largely around RJ's).

 
I am shocked to see what UA's hub in DEN had turned into lately. Flights to MCI are now on Q400s-- only 4 years ago they were 757s.

 

[700UW]

Denver has a blood bath going on with UA, WN, and F9.

 

[slipnutwrench]

Denver has a blood bath going on with UA, WN, and F9.

It's funny you would mention that scenario at DIA presently. If it's true, then what comes around goes around. In the early 1980's, there were three airlines with hubs at Stapleton International airport (DEN).
They were Continental, Frontier, and United. It was definitely "A Blood Bath" at the time. Only winner was the consumer!! It'll shake out just like it did back then.

 

[FWAAA]

Denver is quite a success story for WN;   since re-establishing flights at DEN in 2006, WN has grown to 170 daily departures to 58 nonstop airports.   That's approximately the same size as the US mainline schedule at PHX  (not counting the US PHX regional schedule).  

 

[AirwAr]

Guessing the which hubs would close would have been much easier if it weren't for US management in place.  As it is...DP will use AA resources to prop up even the weakest of US hubs for much longer then Horton and his gang. 

 

[700UW]

Wow, dont give up your day job.

 

[cltrat]

Guessing the which hubs would close would have been much easier if it weren't for US management in place.  As it is...DP will use AA resources to prop up even the weakest of US hubs for much longer then Horton and his gang.

lol you're funny do you do stand up as well?

 

[AirwAr]

lol you're funny do you do stand up as well?

 
Nope this is my day job.
 
Are you saying you disagree?  If AA management would have remained do you doubt they would have done to US what they did to TWA?  Also, of all the AA/US hubs...do you feel any are in a weak position?  If you were to rank hubs from strong to weak positions...which would be on the bottom?