Mid Atlantic Taking To The Air

[airlineorphan]

But SVQLBA, my point is that the choice of 70 and 90 seaters for MidAtlantic takes the company away from finely tuned market-capacity matching and combines poorer ability of a 737 to match capacity to demand with higher fuel CASM of their smaller cousins.

A strange plan indeed!

-Airlineorphan

 

[BoeingBoy]

airlineorphan & SVQLBA,

You both make some valid points. RJ's definitely have a place - smaller markets, off-peak times of day, opening new markets, etc. As SVQLBA says, if the choice is between low load factor on a bigger plane or high load factor on the RJ, the correct choice is the RJ (at least for the bottom line if not the passengers).

As airlineorphan says, making a blanket statement that "RJ's are our salvation" is also flawed, due to the built-in CASM disadvantage. Adding higher CASM RJ's has the effect of raising system CASM, which means that the "cost cuts" needed to lower overall CASM must be bigger.

Jim

 

[MarkMyWords]

I think another key part of the RJ/SJ program has to go hand in hand with the restructured fares to make it work.

I n many of the markets that we once served with 737's and 50% load factors, we consistently heard how replacing those 737's with RJ's would more align the demand with capacity. Because we didn't rationalize fares, we are now flying around 50 seat airplanes with the same 50% load factor. Granted this isn't in every market, but you can find plenty of examples. We ran DC9's and F10's PIT-GRR with generally 50-60 people on the airplanes. Now we run 50 seat RJ's which should operate near capacity. Instead we generally carry 25-30 people. We are again at the 50% load factor.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum. We ran MD80's to ERI and now run every express airplane you can imagine there. The MD80's ran with 70-80% load factor but we replaced them with express. Now the express flighs are running near 100% load facotor on most days. So, since we reduced capacity in the market, we are driving customers to the competitors because we can't meet demand. In these instances, the 70 seat RJ's will be beneficial.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Very good points, MmW.

Jim

 

[wings396]

Mark, you hit the nail on the head with that statement!!! We operated MD-80's, 733's,734's and even the good old F-100 with some very nice loads out of places like ERI. This company has pulled back and only offers RJ's and props as replacements resulting in overflow to the competiton..... We all know that paying the agents in the small stations didn't put this company into the red, nor will Expressing them save the day. Let's get to the root of the real problems this Company faces, and fix them.