SWA now getting involved with slot (s) possibilities

[WNMECH]

Well I won't feel sorry for any poor congressman who way not get his non-stop first class seat home.
He may even have to fly (heaven forbid) on a SWA 737 instead. (Gasp)
At least the price for all the regular folks will go down on most routes when low cost carriers get a bigger piece of the market.

 

[WorldTraveler]

glad we can help you understand why DCA has been a problem in every merger... and why the notion that this one will happen without protections for small city service is ludicrous.

DCA is unlike any airport in the US.

 

[robbedagain]

Except dca was never an issue for nwa/dl ua/co and wn/fl I definitely dont recall them giving up slots I could be wrong though

 

[WorldTraveler]

none of those airlines had a hub at DCA.

No other airline in the past decade has given up slots at DCA as part of a merger.

DL and WN had no divestitures anywhere.

 

[robbedagain]

They may not have but both dl and nw did have significant and dl still does

 

[WorldTraveler]

DL has 15% of the DCA market by passengers and about 11% of the slots, almost identical to AA today. DL's slots were about 20% before the slot swap. US has been far larger than DL at DCA for much of deregulation.  DL has never tried to make DCA a hub. 
 
NW had a heavy DCA operation but leased out most of its slots, some of which US is now using.

 

[blue collar]

WN shouldn't get DCA slots because they'll only serve larger cities, and DL should get DAL gates because they're going to serve larger cities. Got it.

 

[WNMECH]

WN shouldn't get DCA slots because they'll only serve larger cities, and DL should get DAL gates because they're going to serve larger cities. Got it.

Yes, I pointed that out a few pages back.
But it is Delta so that makes it TOTALLY different to WT.

And WT wants to bring back regulation for DCA only to tell airlines what size cities they must fly to. Because DCA is completely different to any other airport in the USA.
But WT also wants to challenge the regulations in the Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006, so Delta can take advantage of it.

 

[blue collar]

Yeah, it typical. Even a few posts above he mentions that DCA has been a problem for every merger, and a couple of posts after that says no one has ever has to divest at DCA. Which is it?

 

[robbedagain]

Yes, I pointed that out a few pages back.
But it is Delta so that makes it TOTALLY different to WT.

And WT wants to bring back regulation for DCA only to tell airlines what size cities they must fly to. Because DCA is completely different to any other airport in the USA.
But WT also wants to challenge the regulations in the Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006, so Delta can take advantage of it.
i mentioned in an earlier post that dl/nw  and ua/co did not have to divest any dca slots   but in wt other post says 2 different views  so its hard to tell.......

 

[WorldTraveler]

It is very disappointing that anyone could come to the conclusion that I support reregulation of anything about the networks or pricing in the airline industry.

I said that the reality is that DCA is unlike any other airport in that everyone seems to think that they should have nonstop service to the nation's capital. Dozens of new slots have been created over the past decade to add slots which have provided service which wouldn't otherwise have made the cut to get nonstop service to DCA if the free market was working. I'm not saying that I support that system; I am simply saying that is the reality of DCA.

Those who want to argue for the complete operation of free markets can't possibly support the notion that LCCs should get preferential bidding. The only way that slots should be allowed to be distributed is via the free market. Given that AA/US can't be forced to divest slots without compensation, bidding is the most economically justifiable solution.

Neither can free market proponents suggest that DL and UA should not be allowed to bid on DCA assets even though DL and UA have half of the share that the combined AA/US will have at LGA as the number two carrier.

The only reason DCA slots should be divested is because AA/US have a majority of slots at DCA and adding to that majority is not good for consumers. Any carrier that is not larger than AA/US should be free to bid on the slots.

DAL is not the nation's capital even if Southwest Airlines thinks that the world revolves around them.

DAL's assets should be distributed the same way that DCA slots should be distributed - to any carrier that doesn't already have a majority of the gates at DCA. It is no more of a benefit to the economy to have WN control more than 80% of DAL gates than it is for AA/US to control 67% of DCA slots.

DL does not still control even half of the slots at any slot controlled airport. All of DL's hub airports have at least 20% low fare competition. UA has the 2nd largest amount of low fare competition.

WN has the least amount of competition in its hubs of any US carrier.

The UA/US merger was stopped because of concentration at DCA.

BTW, WNMech, did you mention that you took DL's psychological tests? Did you ever work for them?

 

[WNMECH]

It is very disappointing that anyone could come to the conclusion that I support reregulation of anything about the networks or pricing in the airline industry.

I said that the reality is that DCA is unlike any other airport in that everyone seems to think that they should have nonstop service to the nation's capital. Dozens of new slots have been created over the past decade to add slots which have provided service which wouldn't otherwise have made the cut to get nonstop service to DCA if the free market was working. I'm not saying that I support that system; I am simply saying that is the reality of DCA.

Those who want to argue for the complete operation of free markets can't possibly support the notion that LCCs should get preferential bidding. The only way that slots should be allowed to be distributed is via the free market. Given that AA/US can't be forced to divest slots without compensation, bidding is the most economically justifiable solution.

Neither can free market proponents suggest that DL and UA should not be allowed to bid on DCA assets even though DL and UA have half of the share that the combined AA/US will have at LGA as the number two carrier.

The only reason DCA slots should be divested is because AA/US have a majority of slots at DCA and adding to that majority is not good for consumers. Any carrier that is not larger than AA/US should be free to bid on the slots.

DAL is not the nation's capital even if Southwest Airlines thinks that the world revolves around them.

DAL's assets should be distributed the same way that DCA slots should be distributed - to any carrier that doesn't already have a majority of the gates at DCA. It is no more of a benefit to the economy to have WN control more than 80% of DAL gates than it is for AA/US to control 67% of DCA slots.

DL does not still control even half of the slots at any slot controlled airport. All of DL's hub airports have at least 20% low fare competition. UA has the 2nd largest amount of low fare competition.

WN has the least amount of competition in its hubs of any US carrier.

The UA/US merger was stopped because of concentration at DCA.

BTW, WNMech, did you mention that you took DL's psychological tests? Did you ever work for them?

No.
They had another stupid employment disqualifer.
Nepotism.

 

[WNMECH]

The DOJ will either correct the agreement to require better assurances from AA/US that they will serve those small cities or else create some other mechanism that allows those cities to retain service on either AA/US or other airlines.

It sounds to me that you ARE advocating some type of re-regulating of DCA.

 

[WNMECH]

DAL is not the nation's capital even if Southwest Airlines thinks that the world revolves around them.

That's a good one.
But the reality is that with slot controls on DCA, it is impossible to serve every small and medium city in the US with non-stop service from DCA.

IMPOSSIBLE.

So it would help the majority of the people flying to and from DCA, to get real low fare competition on as many high traffic routes as possible, in order to lower fares for the most travelers.

 

[WorldTraveler]

The part you seem to be missing is that there are already dozens of small and medium sized cities that ALREADY have service to DCA, a lot of which has been granted by creation of additional slots.

No one is expecting there to be any more service than DCA already has.

But there are a lot of Congress people who want to ensure that what DCA has is not lost.

Thus, it is no more reregulation than what has existed for decades - and what has helped make US' hub in DCA as large as it is.

Congress people want to ensure that the merger doesn't provide an opportunity for AA/US to dump a lot of the service that DCA has had, and a lot of that which was granted specifically as an increase to then slot capacities to increase access to the nation's capital.

BTW, it seems a little strange that you were sent for psychological testing by DL only for it then to be discovered that you had a family member already working for DL. no?