Is The End Near?

[UseYourHead]

ual .... Dave has made it clear we cannot and will not any time soon redo our farestructure simply because we would bleed massively . We have to change the way we do buisness first. Im sure we will adjust our fares in phl however no doubt we can and will compete

Merry Christmas to all,

We must be able to compete with Southwest and hold our own. Other legacy carriers do, and we must adapt or die. Besides, if not them, it would have been JetBlue, AirTran, ACA, Virgin USA, and any other low cost operator that could muster the airframes and point them our direction.

Can we do it? Of course we can, we need...leadership, and teamwork from all participants. Our employees have been through hell, we all would love to rise to the challenge and be proud.

Let the games begin....

 

[Light Years]

All of these in depth analyses are very good at defining the problem, but never a solution.

I want to see one that prescribes a business plan for US Airways. Pacemaker is 100% correct, USAir/ways just never took off in any of the directions it should or could have due to a parade of mistakes, arrogance, and lack of vision. Sadly, the employees are left with the disaster we have today. Not a major, not an LCC, not a regional... a small airline at major airline levels that doesnt serve much of a purpose anymore. We're not even the dominant carrier anymore in some of the traditional markets.

I see nothing in that report saying what US should do, nor do I see it from the management team. I think the answer to the thread title may be yes.

 

[ual777fan]

Here is what US Air needs to due. The need to focus on the east coast, primarily the north-south routes. They need to expand to Mexican and Carribean vacation destinations as well as grow frost-flowers routes between the NE and Florida. USAir should also invest in expanding transcontinental service from BOS and Florida(mabye Tampa).

US Air needs to lower costs by flying longer routes, adopting planes that are cheaper to fly (ie Q400's or the EMB190's), streamline operations by rolling hubs and cutting turn times.

 

[autofixer]

U has expanded in the Caribbean and Mexico. I have read that SWA and JetBlue are evaluating the Caribbean. JetBlue already does SJU from JFK.

 

[etops1]

happy holidays to you all.
u will survive in phl . mark my words. wn will have its day. i suggest that all u employees boycott any interline flying on wn in phl. i know i will. i commute to mco from phl. no way i will fly wn home. they are coming into phl to take my job. some may say that iam taking it personal, well iam. amd every u employee should as well. this is more serious than bwi. and u employees need to see that wn wants us gone. well they got another thing coming cause we aint going nowhere.
everyone thinks that things at wn are all peachy. well they are not. i overheard a crew on the employee bus in mco bitching and moaning about how they were sched to do this and that and how the company teats them like crap sometimes. i guess its in every company. so don't think that wn is all that cause they are not. there time will come, trust me. they are nothing but a bunch of little brown cockroaches skirring around the us. a plague. a plauge that will not overcome the phl market. you might say i don't like wn. well i don't. i flew them once and never again. its a big joke. (so etops,tell us how you really feel lol)

 

[mbmbbost]

Here is what US Air needs to due. The need to focus on the east coast, primarily the north-south routes. They need to expand to Mexican and Carribean vacation destinations as well as grow frost-flowers routes between the NE and Florida. USAir should also invest in expanding transcontinental service from BOS and Florida(mabye Tampa).

US Air needs to lower costs by flying longer routes, adopting planes that are cheaper to fly (ie Q400's or the EMB190's), streamline operations by rolling hubs and cutting turn times.

I agree. If US could do those things well, it could be the airline that satisfies the needs of most people in the East. Retaining/gaining market share should be the most important goal right now. A comprehensive set of routes (nonstops where they are appropriate) and sensible fares would make US a less tempting prey for the LCC's.
Right now US is serving the hubs well (for routes that is), and that's it. Everything else is ripe for the picking by the LCC's.

 

[ual777fan]

I think that Boston could use some more Florida service. The flights are long enough for USAir's ASM's to be very reasonable. Also more transcontinental out of the northeast and Florida. Remember the longer the route generally the less it costs to operate. Because US Air has a very large east coast feeder network expanding the atlantic should be no problem.

USAir either needs to dump the A333's or the 762's. Two widebody fleets as small as USAir's really need to be consolidated to one. Pick 767's or A330's. Maintaining both would be a nightmare. I would suggest the A332's. On the regional side someone needs needs to end this whole Express/RJ infatuation. It's getting really annoying esp. since the Q400 is cheaper to buy/own/operate. However kudo's to management for the 190's. They should pick the 170's instead of the CRJ7's for commonality.

Finally USAir needs to differenate itself from JetBlue and Southwest. Add a economy plus with amenities to bring back business travelers. However a sensible pricing structure would probably do the most to help bring back business, get new business and fend off LCC's

 

[delldude]

got some drift yesterday about news from U regarding "the new plan" being made public around the second week of january.

 

[Light Years]

Hey Ual777

US Airways, as its now called, has made huge expansion into the Carribbean, it is now the second largest airline there (second only to AA who of course operates a hub there). As for focusing on the east coast, I think thats pretty much all they've done for about ten years, and that is what has made us the most un-major of the majors.

They are also working towards a standard Airbus fleet, not just the widebodies. A330-200s and additional A320 family aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in 2007, presumably to retire the 767 and 757 fleet.

US Airways MidAtlantic division will be the North American launch customer for the Embraer 170 and has options for the 175. Currently the 190/195s would have to be operated by the mainline division if they were to be ordered (they have not). Siegel has hinted that he would like to replace the 737s with them, I wouldnt be surprised if a further scope adjustment is part of the new plan.

I think you are correct about a sensible pricing structure. You're also absolutely correct that instead of lowering the service to levels that have employees embarrassed to work there, they should be adding amenities tailored to the business traveler to differentiate the product. If they dont, someone else will.

Glad to hear the new plan will be announced in the second week of January. I hope its a good one, I think its the last chance.

 

[autofixer]

What a prime example of what the UAL employees know about U. They still think U is just a little commuter airline in western P.A. JUst an observation, nothing else.

 

[robbedagain]

I thought that USAIRWAYS was now the largest Carribbean operator? I thought I had read somewhere where we surpassed American as being the largest air carrier in the caribbean.

 

[mbmbbost]

Light Years,
You're right, US has focused on the east coast. But I don't think they've paid attention to doing it well. BOS and NYC have very inferior service. Same goes for FL. Much of the population in the east gets better service from other airlines, that also offer more extensive networks. US should at least try to offer good east coast service to all the major population centers in the east. It doesn't seem there can ever be a good east coast network with these gaping holes in it.

 

[blueoceans]

I'm not sure about frequencies, but American Airlines (having a hub in San Juan) flies to many more cities in the Carribbean than US Airways does.

 

[USFlyer]

I thought that USAIRWAYS was now the largest Carribbean operator? I thought I had read somewhere where we surpassed American as being the largest air carrier in the caribbean.

I believe in terms of destinations served, US is the biggest. In terms of volume of passengers carried, AA still dominates (and will for quite some time due to their SJU "hub").

 

[etops1]

xpect u in the future to make carribean sun and carribean star airlines usairways express carriers. you will probrably see some rj's down there as well. as for a sju satellite base maybe maybe not. but the station manager in sju told me to xpect some big things to happen in sju. i spoke to a supervisor in lga .he told me that u wanted to so lga sju three times daily. but it can't get the port's approval. it was hard enough for them to get the saturday service. he said the reasoning is because sju is too far. but the companies argument is that ua and frontier fly daily to den and its the same distance. so we will see who wins. also i was told that u is talking to ua to let u use 3 gates at jfk for carribean ops. we will see.