The Future At Clt If Us Fails?

[CLT-Douglas]

I for one feel for US Airways and it's employees, and would hate to see the airline go out of business. Unfortunately, with each passing day it looks as though this could be a very real possibility. As a Charlotte resident, I am curious of what your thoughts are about the dramatic and drastic effects a shut down will cause to the CLT airport, and the prospects of rebounding from the loss in the future. Below are some questions and thoughts on this topic that I would be interested in getting your opinion on.

1. With a 90% reduction of service with out US Airways, how quickly could airlines begin to restore some of the lost service to CLT?

2. CLT is currently building a new parking garage, and I believe has funding and is starting construction of a third parallel runway already. Plans to double the size of terminal E, the express terminal are also on the drawing board. Is it likely the new runway and terminal E expansion will be canceled as a result to a shut down, or is it likely the airport will go ahead with the plans to be a more attractive hub facility for possible other airlines?

3. I am aware of the low O&D Stats at CLT with is a major negative. I am certain that some explanation as to why is because CLT is the most expensive airport for passengers to fly out of in the country. CLT has a lot of positives going for it as it's costs are low, very efficient, great facilities, good year round weather, good centralized east coast location, growing city, low cost of living, very limited LCC competition for now. All factors to lure another airline to use CLT as a hub, but in all likely hood who would be interested how much of it would be US Airways to sell rather then the airports responsibility?

4. If no other airline is interested in using CLT as a hub, would CLT see a flood of LCC enter or a lot of empty gates and only a slight increase from the other airlines that currently already serve CLT?

5. If US Airways fails, Lufthansa would be the only airline offering non stop service to Europe. Is it likely another airline will take over US Airways routes to Europe from CLT if there is no hub airline, or would eventually Lufthansa pull out and all service to Europe will be lost? If another airline did use CLT as a hub, what other routes could be considered?

Thanks for your reply, hopefully this discussion will remain just that, and US Airways will remain strong in CLT. Feel free to add on to any further questions you may also have.

 

[delldude]

you had better look at the scenario in PIT before you make judgements... CLT could and will find themselves at "the back of the bus so to speak...
CLT will in the most likelyhood end up in the same boat as cincinnatti.... <_<

 

[ua767fo]

Nobody in their right mind wants to see USAirways fail. Sadly many other airlines have, and yet, municipalities have picked up the pieces and went on. A few examples:

EAL at ATL eventually replaced by Valuejet

PAA at MIA eventually replaced by American

TWA at ORD, operation bought by American

Jet America at Long Beach, replaced by JB (long time coming)

USAir at SAN, replaced by SW

Braniff at DFW, Delta filled the void

Midway at MDW, SW and ATA have pushed it to the brim


"Is it likely the new runway and terminal E expansion will be canceled as a result to a shut down,"

Generally speaking, runways are 'jobs programs' and political payoffs.......and funding has nothing to due with whether or not they will be used.

" If no other airline is interested in using CLT as a hub, would CLT see a flood of LCC enter"

Good question........markets determine whether or not a city is or ramains a hub. For example look at the demise of the AA RDU and BNA hubs, not to mention SJC. STL, DAL, and others have become major SW focus cities. F9 has chosen to be the second major airline with a hub in DEN, even after the demise of Westjet and Markair. Unfortunately, some cities never recover, such as DAY or SYR. Its a dynamic market out there and change is inevitable.

"If US Airways fails, Lufthansa would be the only airline offering non stop service to Europe. Is it likely another airline will take over US Airways routes to Europe from CLT if there is no hub airline,"

It all depends on the market. Not all cities LH, BA, Virgin fly to are airline hubs. Many cities that once had int'l service no longer do. The only thing certain is that change is certain. No getting around that.

DENVER, CO

 

[WorldTraveler]

CLT will keep some level of air service but in all likelihood if US fails, it won't be to as many nonstop destinations as US currently offers. On the other hand, key routes will grow in size as new carriers enter and greatly expand currently "narrow pipelines" in order to funnel traffic onto their networks. Although LCCs don't have hubs in the traditional sense, they do have key markets from which they offer significant levels of service - focus cities, if you will.

Delldude,
Cincinnati is still very well served for air service. Only a very few cities have nonstop service to as many US cities as CVG. Further, CVG now has daily air service to 5 European cities - not bad for a "small" hub. We'll know more what DL's plans for all of its hubs will be but there are no leaks that indicate any downsizing for CVG.

UAL767FO,
There is very little excess runway capacity in large cities and even less when traffic is projected out 10 years or more. The only thing that is gained by not building runways in major cities is that pilots get paid to sit for hours waiting for an opportunity to take off.

 

[Smartest Loser]

you had better look at the scenario in PIT before you make judgements... CLT could and will find themselves at "the back of the bus so to speak...
CLT will in the most likelyhood end up in the same boat as cincinnatti.... <_<

[post="169969"][/post]​

Dell,

Without making judgements....You cannot compare what is happening in PIT to what can happen to CLT. Yes, if U goes under CLT would fail also. But,

Who's lost the hub status..?? PIT Who's rent psf is 5 times that of CLT..?? PIT

Who's lost all international service..?? PIT. I could go on and on but I don't like what is happening anymore than you do. Its always been this PIT vs. CLT thing with U. Thats what mgt. used to get the work done...!!!

Anyway, when U said MDA's HQ would be in PIT...that was the dead blow for PIT as a major hub city.

CLT seems to be in a better postion to grab a major player if anything happens.

 

[Hope777]

Don't Expect a run on CLT if U fails...........
Some Airlines might pick up some pieces, but the state of the industry is so bad that no one wants to start yet another connecting hub.

 

[nycbusdriver]

Don't Expect a run on CLT if U fails...........
Some Airlines might pick up some pieces, but the state of the industry is so bad that no one wants to start yet another connecting hub.

[post="170036"][/post]​

I think you are on the right track. If USAirways tanks, CLT will never be a hub for another airline. Hubs are becoming obsolete anyway. CLT will get reasonably good airline service from other carriers and many will hurry in to pick the bones.

 

[air chief]

A real good example of this..MCI/Kansas City. Braniff tried to hub it..failed. Eastern tried to hub it/Failed. UAir attempted to hub it and it didnt work. This city had some real bad O@D numbers and at least one terminal bldg remains empty

 

[Cfm56]

For years MCI tried to be or sustain itself as a "hub" airline but over time they figured out that being a "hub" airline wasn't necessarily a good thing. They now have a variety of carriers flying to all sorts of places at competitive airfares and are not held hostage to just one airline when it comes to labor issues, fares, bankrupticies, etc. They have now discovered being a non-hub airport is a good thing.....maybe more airport authorities should learn that.

 

[Rob]

Before bankruptcy I recall Siegel saying that CLT as a hub had never been profitable? . That should be the city's worry. If it can be demonstrated that, post-Chap 11, US turned CLT into a profitable hub, then CLT would probably see another hub operation come along. Otherwise why would any airline bother?

 

[BoeingBoy]

For my thoughts on CLT, just read my thoughts on PIT in another thread.

Hope777 is right with one minor correction (IMHO). Instead of "the state of the industry is so bad that no one wants to start yet another connecting hub" I think one word needs to be inserted - legacy. So we would have "the state of the legacy industry is so bad...".

For the legacy carriers, you'd probably see some increase in gage/frequency pretty quickly but with no new system capacity scheduled to come on line they would be shuffling airplanes around for this.

So who has new airplanes coming? The LCC's, especially Southwest and JetBlue. With gates suddenly available, I could see either or both entering the market fairly quickly (3-6 months). JetBlue is the more interesting possibility, with the Emb-190's coming next year.

Jim

 

[jimntx]

3. I am aware of the low O&D Stats at CLT with is a major negative.
5. If US Airways fails, Lufthansa would be the only airline offering non stop service to Europe. Is it likely another airline will take over US Airways routes to Europe from CLT if there is no hub airline, or would eventually Lufthansa pull out and all service to Europe will be lost? If another airline did use CLT as a hub, what other routes could be considered?

[post="169951"][/post]​

I think your opening statement on #3 provides an answer for #5. You have to ask yourself on any city, is the International service a result of high O&D or, is it a result of the major airline there shuttling connecting passengers into that airport for connections to International? There is an intrinsic difference between International flying out of JFK, ORD, MIA, LAX airports, and international service out of other U.S. cities. In those airports, local traffic alone could sustain a great deal of the international flying; not so, other U.S. cities--certainly, not at the level that some have today. And, I include DFW in the second group. I doubt seriously that DFW would see the level of International flying that it has today if AA did not bring people from other cities to connect there.

When I lived in Charlotte (a thousand years ago) most residents didn't see a reason to expend the effort to leave Charlotte to go as far as Asheville, why would anyone want to go as far as London?

 

[air chief]

For years MCI tried to be or sustain itself as a "hub" airline but over time they figured out that being a "hub" airline wasn't necessarily a good thing. They now have a variety of carriers flying to all sorts of places at competitive airfares and are not held hostage to just one airline when it comes to labor issues, fares, bankrupticies, etc. They have now discovered being a non-hub airport is a good thing.....maybe more airport authorities should learn that.

[post="170041"][/post]​

this is true but those airport managers (Pit/Kent George) love those high landing fees

 

[gso-crew]

Don't forget Charlotte belonged to Eastern before Piedmont/Usairways moved in and took over. Eastern had a mini-hub there in the 70's. If Usairways follows Eastern into the history books .... life will go on in the Queen City! It's well located on the east coast.....

 

[CLT-Douglas]

I am not sure if CLT is profitable or not, but it's growth since US Air bought Piedmont along with United's strong interest in getting the CLT hub during merger talks with US makes me believe that it is, or could be.