US Airways' International Fleet Plan & Growth Update

[X-U]

The plans all sound good, but you aren't operating in a vacuum. With the Open Skies agreement to Europe, everybody and his brother is going to be flying transatlantic. A decade ago, US carriers were stronger than their European counterparts, that situation is now reversed. (Note how the agreement wasn't done until now.) With European carriers covering the high end of market, and new service from truly low-cost carriers covering the low end, there won't be much market left for the US legacy carriers.

 

[autofixer]

Tel Aviv ( Not sure what continent it is on)

Having spent extensive time in Southwest Asia...Tel Aviv is in Asia.

 

[deltawatch]

:unsure:

Int'l Air Traffic Growth to Slow in 2008
Thursday January 31,
Trade Group Expects Growth in International Air Passenger and Freight Traffic to Slow in 2008


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Slowing passenger traffic on international airlines in December and a dip in freight growth last year are gloomy trends expected to continue in 2008, an industry trade group said Thursday.

Passenger traffic, as measured by revenue-per-kilometer flown, increased 6.7 percent in December compared with the same month in 2006, but was down from the 9.3 percent growth recorded in November, according to the International Air Transport Association's latest data. For 2007, passenger traffic rose 7.4 percent compared with 2006.

A kilometer equals 0.62 mile.

International air-freight demand also grew in December and for all of last year, but the 4.3 percent growth in 2007 was down slightly from 4.6 percent in 2006.

While last year's results led to the industry's first profit since 2000, "we can state equally clearly there will be no encore performance in 2008," IATA Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani said in a release. "The slower growth for passenger demand in December sets the trend for the coming months."

High oil prices and the global credit crunch will bring down industry profitability to $5 billion this year from $5.6 billion in 2007, IATA said last month.

Fuel costs accounted for 26.5 percent of U.S. airlines' operating expenses in the third quarter of last year and were expected to represent about 28 percent of global expenses in 2007, according to domestic and international trade groups.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.65 to $90.68 in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

 

[flyingcat]

With European carriers covering the high end of market, and new service from truly low-cost carriers covering the low end, there won't be much market left for the US legacy carriers.

Unless the legacies workout a deal with their European partners like the joint venture that DL, UA, and NW have with AF, LH and NW respectively to share costs and profits.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Great plan eh?

<snip>

I see that someone else remembers "More Airbuses than God can count" followed a few years later by fleet shrinkage. Fleet plans are nice but airplanes sitting at the gate are better.

Jim

 

[back2CLT]

These kinds of posts are somewhat silly. This is pretty much a laundry list of almost every significant city in the civilized or not-so-civilized world that US doesn't already serve. I guess we could round out the list by adding Cairo, Tehran, Jakarta, Nairobi (sp?), Dehli, Osaka, Manila, etc. And, domestically speaking, while we're making silly lists, why not throw in HKY, ISO, INT, CSG, MCN, ANB, BTR, SOP, PIE, APF, YNG, EVV, PAH, SBN, ACY, MSN, FNT, DAN, ORH, EEN, CBE, VLD, TUP, PIB, MEI, MBS, BQK, HUF, MTH and LBE? Those cities could use a few widebodies too, other than the ones working at Wal Mart.

And where does one produce the aircraft for this sort of thing? I guess we could un-mothball the BAE-146s, strap an extra fuel tank to the top, and reconfig with 1.5F/200Y so it would make money? The 0.5 F seat is for Art when he uses his Chairman's Preferred upgrades.

Now that's a silly post....there are very specifid reasons I didn't pick Manila, Nairobi, Jakarta, Tehran, or Cairo.....but Osaka, sounds good to me

I think the markets listed are one of the following:

1. Underserved
2. Have significant connections to at least 1 of US's existing hubs.
3. Star Alliance hubs.
4. Large enough that US should have a presence.

And while Cairo fits most of these criterium, NYC dominates as an entryway into the US for Egyptians, with IAD the only other logical choice. CLT, PHL, and PHX have almost zero draw, and there would be little need for onward connections, so US Airways should steer clear....

Let the sillyness continue

 

[USstew23]

Well actually CAI would not be that far out there since *A is grooming Egypt Air to join. Anyway no mention of the 340's at all?? Very disturbing and "Pilot" why would they sell off everything but Domestic and Carrib? since domestic doesn't really pull in the money anymore what would be the purpose? Not trying to be cute either just trying to get your take on it. I think all of the different scenerios are interesting.

 

[roosterfish]

why not 2 or 3 international flights from boston using the etops 757s ???

i think i heard somewhere that there's a lot of people from ireland in the boston area

 

[USstew23]

why not 2 or 3 international flights from boston using the etops 757s ???

i think i heard somewhere that there's a lot of people from ireland in the boston area

Alot of Irish and Portuguese but I think its seasonal market. AA was doing BOS-SNN/DUB a while back along with BOS-MAN marketed as all Y but I thinked they scrapped it. US has bigger fish to fry right now with lack of aircraft.

 

[PA18]

I see that someone else remembers "More Airbuses than God can count" followed a few years later by fleet shrinkage. Fleet plans are nice but airplanes sitting at the gate are better.

Jim

Jim,

And then, as now, management was trying to get a contract done with the pilots. Funny how talk of growth and new airplanes always comes up at contract time.

And I'm sure Jerry Glass is annoyed with Parker for back-tracking on the A340 before the contract was signed. That's one less carrot he can hang in front of the East pilots.

 

[InternationalShannon]

And I'm sure Jerry Glass is annoyed with Parker for back-tracking on the A340 before the contract was signed. That's one less carrot he can hang in front of the East pilots.

Wait, do you mean we aren't getting those 340's anymore??

 

[jimntx]

Wait, do you mean we aren't getting those 340's anymore??

With any airline (except maybe SWA), as BoeingBoy might say, wait until you see the plane parked at the gate before you believe it's real.

 

[SpinDoc]

why not 2 or 3 international flights from boston using the etops 757s ???

i think i heard somewhere that there's a lot of people from ireland in the boston area

BOS would be good launching point for the etops 757's to Europe based on geographical position.
Heck, the company could leverage LGA and DCA shuttle flights to fill up any BOS/TA departures.

CLT would be a really good choice for expanded T/A operations because the 10 year plan for the airport includes additional gate space in D-Con and an additional parallel runway. We'll have to wait and see what the youngsters in Tempe have in mind.

 

[PA18]

Alot of Irish and Portuguese but I think its seasonal market. AA was doing BOS-SNN/DUB a while back along with BOS-MAN marketed as all Y but I thinked they scrapped it. US has bigger fish to fry right now with lack of aircraft.

Irish, Portuguese, Italian, and an enormous population of people of Caribbean descent, especially from Puerto Rico, who have been living in the area for generations. Yet, the non-stop BOS-SJU (always full) runs only on weekends with the exception of a couple of winter months. And on the weekends, US runs two A319's from BOS to SJU within two hours of each other (and an A320 and A319 from BOS to LAS within one hour of each other every day). And management complains about seat mile costs...

Of course, US doesn't even offer non-stop flights from BOS or NYC to Florida, where 75% of the people of all ethnic backgrounds who live in those cities want to go in the winter.

 

[roosterfish]

Our flights to Shannon and Dublin, Ireland are on the same plane right?
I think I remember hearing that all of our flights to Ireland have to stop in Shannon?