Request for PHL-China Extension to 3/25/11
- Thread starter zethya
- Start date
exB717Flyer
Veteran
- Aug 20, 2002
- 1,106
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I normally ignore spelling errors but this one is just too funny to pass on. Is Bangalore now the big-chest capital of India?
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luvn737s
Guest
The catchment area of PHX is the entire Western US. Basing the decision on the population of PHX alone is pretty shortsighted. Compared the PHL, PHX would provide much more reliable connections for Asia/Europe. ATC issues can cause the whole PHL operation to go in the dump. PHX moves 365 a year.
Until you get on the ground.
nycbusdriver
Veteran
B.S. alert!
Talk to Kirby then. I'm certain he and Parker would love your fabulous business insight into the actual (versus their perceived) knowledge of the situation.
(Just GOTTA turn every da** thing into east vs. west, huh?)
FrugalFlyerv2.0
Veteran
- Oct 29, 2003
- 2,931
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IMHO the important thing is the $$$ available to spend (individuals + corporations) in the PHX catchment area. (If I were to stereotype, I would aks: how much $$$ do the pensioners from the PHX catchment area have to spend on airfares?)
FutureUScapt
Veteran
- Dec 1, 2005
- 600
- 13
Roughly 70% of the demand from US-Europe lies east of the Mississippi, and 45% is on the eastern seaboard alone. How exactly is PHX well positioned for that?
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Kirby addressed the PHX situation during the last PHX pilots town hall meeting. PHX does not have the population base to support European flights because it takes two aircraft to operate one route. That doubles the expenses in a market that has COMPARATIVELY little business traffic to Europe. If we're hurting on international routes out of PHL now, PHX would be equivalent to opening up an artery.
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Sure, whatever the boy wonder says thats negative to the west you jump on your NYC bus. Anything he says that's negative towards the east, what do we hear?... crickets. I bet he didn't mention British Airways fills a 747 on that route daily did he? How would he explain that one? There's a market tuff guy, we just don't have the planes.
BTW, I would say YOU started this latest round of the east vs. west. :down:
Kirby addressed the PHX situation during the last PHX pilots town hall meeting. PHX does not have the population base to support European flights because it takes two aircraft to operate one route. That doubles the expenses in a market that has COMPARATIVELY little business traffic to Europe. If we're hurting on international routes out of PHL now, PHX would be equivalent to opening up an artery.
[/quote]
Sure, whatever the boy wonder says thats negative to the west you jump on your NYC bus. Anything he says that's negative towards the east, what do we hear?... crickets. I bet he didn't mention British Airways fills a 747 on that route daily did he? How would he explain that one? There's a market tuff guy, we just don't have the planes.
BTW, I would say YOU started this latest round of the east vs. west. :down:
NiceLandingCaptain
Senior
- Jul 22, 2007
- 406
- 0
Don't look at percentages, look at numbers. Presently there is one flight per day, with ~300 seats, going to one destination in Europe: BA's nightly run to LGW.
There IS room for more non-stop European service out of PHX.
PHX Flyer
Member
This statement would only be true, if those aircraft were utilized solely on the European routes, and sitting idle on the ground the rest of the time. That that would indeed be foolish. On the other hand, I think US is missing out on a unique opportunity, if they didn't try to capture the long-haul potential here. There seems to be a general tendency to downplay the strength of Phoenix as a hub. Bu after all, thanks to Phoenix, America West was able to grow big and powerful enough to take over the old US Airways ...
Obviously, as it stands right now, US doesn't have enough lift to set up a long-haul operation here. But that will change in the years to come, if all the A330s are delivered as scheduled. If so, there should be enough potential for a few routes to Europe, including LHR, FRA and CDG. After all, British Airways flies a B747 here, not just the smaller 777.
In order to optimize aircraft utilization, aircraft should ideally fly alternately on eastern and either western or southern routes, i.e to Hawaii or South America. IMHO, it would also make more sense for US to fly to China from PHX rather than from PHL. It would btw save US the additional expenses on a small subfleet for Asian flights.
And while I am at it, a few remarks on GIG: how many flights from the East Coast to Brazil is US going to compete with the coming fall? On the flipside, US could offer the most convenient connection to Brazil for the entire western seaboard via PHX. There are no nonstops to South America from anywhere on the West Coast. US could bank on its own as well as United's western frequent flyer base.
It certainly requires some thinking out of the box, and that's unfortunately something that's often missing in our corporate culture.
Um, indeed there is likely "room". Problem is, who will buy the seats? PHX is a town of tiny businesses and retirees who likely could rarely afford Europe. The PHX temperature/altitude (according to the LAX BA station manager) requires that many of the flights go out less than full and re-routing many to LAX for a real experience, on the six BA and Virgin wide-body daily non-stops, just to Heathrow.
You can talk about catchment basins all you want, but the sad reality is, PHX is a worse example than PIT. Most in the west would go to LAX/SFO if they could not go directly to PHL or CLT.
"Bu", apparently, you have not read the SEC filings, have you?
US saved HP. Even Parker said so.
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luvn737s
Guest
If LAX has the ability to support 8 euro-based international cariers, then little ol' PHX should be able to support a couple flights a say to a couple euro destinations. But more importantly, it doesn't have the cluster factor of PHL which as we all know is the axle of the universe. It has the bearing grease to prove it.
A320 Driver
Veteran
- Aug 24, 2002
- 3,358
- 2,319
Aircraft order was changed and the airplanes are being delivered with Rolls engines...high output. BUT, you have to have a plan to fill them up and a crew base for a couple of airplanes would be expensive.
You can hope if you like.
Driver B)
Poug Darker
Senior
- Jul 12, 2006
- 276
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PHX will never be an Intl hub because United and the Star Alliance would take a hit in LAX. The SA boys would rather have US feed the Intl Ops out of LAX and SFO.
Onestep2flt
Senior
- Sep 27, 2007
- 386
- 155
I would think it would be no surprise to employees. I believe tha Mr. Kirby said in the last crew news session that they were likely to seek an extension according to someone with access. I still wonder if they will abandon the route if an extention is not granted, or if they will try to service it with the A330-200. I know this has already been talked about here, but still an interesting subject to consider.
