Virgin Usa/ Us Airways?

[TomBascom]

How in the world is selling gates to a competitor a business plan or a good thing at all? Didnt US do this in California with Southwest? Plus, arent we just reducing congestion for Southwest while we continue to sit planes at gates for hours?

Depends on what the "competitors" markets are. If Branson comes in and starts up low fare routes all over the Northeast then yeah, it'd be a bad idea to help him out (I'd be more worried about SW doing that though -- they've already got the pieces lined up...) If he goes after the Florida business then it's a wash, nothing that isn't already happening. But maybe it's a more cooperative move -- maybe there's a code share or something in the works that would build traffic through route system synergies. Dave did make that comment about working with LCCs when the SW news came out -- maybe he meant Branson.

SW isn't planning to let PHL's congestion bother them in the first place. Fixing it helps US a heck of a lot more than keeping it broken hurts SW.

And yes, "overcapacity" is utterly bogus. The only thing that there is excess capacity of is overpriced seats.

 

[AKA_trvlr64]

I believe the rolling hub has great potential for US. Other than pax perhaps having longer connecting times at the hubs, are there any other significant pitfalls?

I think US would be remiss if they are not seriously exploring the use of rolling hubs.

Personally I would rather have a longer connection time than doing the OJ dash through PHL because of ATC delays. I almost had a heart attack running from A-west to the F express gates one day because of yet another delay. I'm only 39 and wanted to die or even miss my flight. I'll never run like that again.

Plus an added bonus to the customer's longer connection time would be an increase in revenue for the airport shops and restaurants. I bet they'd love to be making more money.

 

[N617P]

Hello Chip
With regards to Los Angeles gates. We presently use gates 8 & 12 full time and 4B part time.Terminal One at LAX is owned and operated by the department of airports.The information I received years ago is that the number of flights an airline has determines the number of gates that it can operate out of.In the early 90's we had 130 plus flights and most of the gates.Now the opposite is true.
With our departure from Terminal One a new LCC was rumored to be moving in.
Could this be Virgin USA???? Time will tell.

The latest news is that we will move to terminal 6 early next year.I will keep you posted on the progress. My thoughts are it will be mid year at best.



B)

 

[MarkMyWords]

I stand by my previous post that Chip's idea of a rolling Hub in PHL is nuts. He is suggesting that we cut gates by about 30%, and sell the excess gates. Their has to be a smarter way to accomplish this than more layoffs and give revenue away.

Who says we have to sell the excess mainline gates in PHL? When you look at the EMB-170, doesn't it look very similar to the A319 or the B737? What if we used mainline gates for the EMB-170's?

I agree with you that in a terminal like PHL I would hate to see us get rid of any gate space. Once it is gone it would be tough to get back, especially if the mainline portion of the airline were to grow again. Utilizing those gates, similar to how we operate out of A con in PIT. MDA would have an alotment of gates to operate out of. You can leave the props and smaller ERJ's in terminal F.

You also stated "Why wait for them to take market share out of PHL? Start the fight now!" How do you know that this isn't a competitive stance as well as a way to reduce costs. The two have to go hand in hand. If we offer more service in PHL, to the same destinations as WN, with a better product (which needs work from where we are now) - isn't that standing and fighting? Rolling the hub will address many of the issues that we have been plagued with for years.

The way I look at it is, if we currently offer 300 mainline departures a day out of PHL and by rolling the hub we can offer 375-400, without adding a single mainline airplane, then we are moving in the right direction. A/C utilization rates will improve. And this additional flying can be done without adding additional employees. So now productivity is up. CASM are down. This is the direction that we want to be heading. Increase revenue, decrease costs, increase productivity.

How is this NOT a competitive response?

 

[tadjr]

How bout a Cus then? I try to remember to say customer at work, but here its easier to type pax than customer....

 

[usairways85]

MarkMyWords: I don't know if you were just stating a hypothetical situation, but PHL currently has 370 daily departures, not 300. So in essence what you are saying about the rolling hub would put PHL up to 425-450 daily flights

 

[MarkMyWords]

It was hypothetical numbers......I didn't have the actual totals handy.

Thanks....glad you got my point though. We could greatly increase the amount of flying, not only in PHL but PIT and CLT would also see additional flights as well.

 

[supercruiser]

Dependent upon union agreements, I believe the more employee productivity improvements the more the company could expand flying/block hours to lower unit costs and increase revenue with the existing work force. Isn't that what good management should do?

So what the heck has the company been doing for the last year and a half? The employees have already given plenty of givebacks both in pay and productivity more than once (approx $100 million/mo), and what have the genius' in management done with it? Squat!

What makes you think that if you give them some more, they would expand flying/block hours? They should have already been doing that in the first place. What's been stopping them all this time from doing exactly what you propose?

This company better do something else besides wait around until they beat up on the employees some more for more productivity, while they're getting their lunch eaten over at the airport. I'll agree with you on one thing, good management ought to be doing something, but here we are, still waiting a year and a half after this all started. Maybe it's time for some new management that can actually do something with the $100 million/mo we're currently providing them.

supercruiser

 

[Fatherknowsbest]

To MarkMyWords :

One of my points is to attack WN in the very near future. Why wait for next May in PHL? If we give WN something else to worry about (STL as an example point) maybe they don't get so entrenched in PHL.

So tired of waiting for our Management to fight a battle (other than against the employees). I think if we would ever go on the offensive some other Airline CEO's would die of shock!

I'm ready to fight now! Almost all of us have been spoiling for a fight of somekind that could be a plus, instead of fighting each other!

I want some leadership, I think we all WANT some LEADERSHIP!


Thank you, rant over!

 

[DOA@Airport]

Sorry to be Nit-Picky,

As a 4 year Chairman's Preferred flying on average 120 segments per year on US Airways I am most assuredly NOT a PAX! I am the most valuable thing a company can have.


I AM A CUSTOMER NOT A PAX

PB,

Of all people on this board, I would least expect you to get in a tizzy over innocuous terminology. Since I don't work for US, I guess I could argue that you are not my "customer". But given that I have a stake in US's success (which depends on keeping loyal customers like you), I'll forgo the argument, confess my unintended sins, and assure you that I'll never refer to you as a pax again.

Do I have to change the name of my Monthly Airport Pax Report?

 

[MarkMyWords]

To MarkMyWords :

One of my points is to attack WN in the very near future. Why wait for next May in PHL? If we give WN something else to worry about (STL as an example point) maybe they don't get so entrenched in PHL.

So tired of waiting for our Management to fight a battle (other than against the employees). I think if we would ever go on the offensive some other Airline CEO's would die of shock!

I'm ready to fight now! Almost all of us have been spoiling for a fight of somekind that could be a plus, instead of fighting each other!

I want some leadership, I think we all WANT some LEADERSHIP!


Thank you, rant over!

I agree that US has always been a follower and on the defensive, and it would be great to be a leader and to take an offensive stance for a change. Depending on how effective we are at changing our business practice, maybe we could see some sort of offensive. Let me try an example and see what you think:

Let's say that we roll the PHL hub and thru the efficencies we increase our aircraft utilization rate from 10 hours to 13 and from an average of 7 segments to 9 (hypothetically ). If we have 250 active flying airplanes, theoretically, we could increase flying by nearly 500 flights a day. (Again, this is just an example.....used to emphasize a point) Now we all know that you can't cram 500 additional flights into PHL alone, so there will be some residual benefits to other stations. Now we add to this the changed fare structure. Perhaps we could take a more offensive stance in cities like BOS and LGA. It has been WN's modus operandi to avoid bigger stations like BOS and LGA by offering low fare alternatives using secondary airports like PVD, MHT and ISP.

What if we use some of that additional flying to add service out of a station like BOS. Compete with routes that WN flies out of MHT and PVD but offer the service out of BOS and at a fare the same as WN or very close to it. Imagine you are a customer that lives in the BOS area and you now have a choice. You can fly WN out of MHT or PVD to MCO for 160.00 or you can fly US out of BOS for 175.00. Is it now worth the drive to MHT or PVD for a 15.00 fare difference?

Again, this all goes back to having the right product at the right price....but do you see where we may be able to regain some of the market share that we have lost? The additional flying may have the added benefit of opening additional markets or increasing service on exsisting markets with beter utilized aircraft.

Again, this is just a high level overview of a conceptual idea.

 

[Fatherknowsbest]

This is intended as a compliment.
Time to send you to CCY!

We've got the orchestra, Masetro all we need is the conductor!

 

[MarkMyWords]

LOL....Thanks Pops.

 

[aerosmith]