Was reading some other boards about how hot some Asian routes appear to be. Would it be possible to service MNL from say, PHX or LAS with the A330? On another note about MNL....I was in MNL a few weeks ago and I saw the place where I thought the US Airways call center is (was?)...Downtown Makati City. A nice office building in a nice area with the "US Airways" sign above the entry door. Wish I had my camera!
A330 to MNL?
- Thread starter night_ice
- Start date
flyingcat
Veteran
- Oct 10, 2005
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Just having a call center in MNL is not a good enough reason. However the history is not good.
Philippine Airlines learned the hard way that MNL is not a high yield gold mine. I don't think that LAS or PHX could pull anywhere near the O&D that LAX or SFO could pull. Service to a Star member hub is a far better and safer bet for US.
Anyone notice that US has been going into cities that are hubs for smaller star members or where a signifigant codeshare exists.
MNL could work with PA's help and since they are not part of the alliance that looks sketchy. Although they serve LAS via YVR so who knows how they would view US service since it is a large hub.
Philippine Airlines learned the hard way that MNL is not a high yield gold mine. I don't think that LAS or PHX could pull anywhere near the O&D that LAX or SFO could pull. Service to a Star member hub is a far better and safer bet for US.
Anyone notice that US has been going into cities that are hubs for smaller star members or where a signifigant codeshare exists.
MNL could work with PA's help and since they are not part of the alliance that looks sketchy. Although they serve LAS via YVR so who knows how they would view US service since it is a large hub.
I'm not convinced that announcing new international routes is equivalent to printing money. Sure, legacies probably won't have WN or B6 fighting tooth and nail on those routes for a while, but that doesn't ensure success.
Example: Last year, AA initiated ORD-NGO with great fanfare. Chicago is a huge metro area with plenty of O&D. On top of that, AA's extensive hub there guaranteed lots of feed.
By October, the route was cancelled. Why? UA had won a beauty contest held by Toyota (very big in Nagoya) and secured a large corporate deal with Toyota. Gone was any hope of attracting enough F and J pax (this was a three class 777) to make it work.
Delta has really hyped the money-printing potential of its new transatlantic routes in recent weeks, but I'm skeptical. Real money is made on those foreign routes where competition is limited, like LHR, NRT, China and some S American routes (Brazil, EZE). Second-tier European cities? If there was huge potential there, wouldn't airlines from those open-skies countries already be flying sufficient capacity to/from the USA?
Example: Last year, AA initiated ORD-NGO with great fanfare. Chicago is a huge metro area with plenty of O&D. On top of that, AA's extensive hub there guaranteed lots of feed.
By October, the route was cancelled. Why? UA had won a beauty contest held by Toyota (very big in Nagoya) and secured a large corporate deal with Toyota. Gone was any hope of attracting enough F and J pax (this was a three class 777) to make it work.
Delta has really hyped the money-printing potential of its new transatlantic routes in recent weeks, but I'm skeptical. Real money is made on those foreign routes where competition is limited, like LHR, NRT, China and some S American routes (Brazil, EZE). Second-tier European cities? If there was huge potential there, wouldn't airlines from those open-skies countries already be flying sufficient capacity to/from the USA?
Kev3188
Veteran
Nothing says "fun" like loading LD3 after LD3 with Balikbayan (sp?) boxes....My shoulders hurt just thinking about it!
WestCoastGuy
Veteran
- Jun 27, 2004
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Philippine Airlines has the only direct flights to MNL. The A340 and 747 generally make a fuel stop in HNL, but Ive taken them occationally when the winds are good, and they overfly HNL so it's a nonstop LAX/MNL. Although their flights are usually full, Im not sure if we could fill up flights. The only Star Alliance carriers that serves MNL is Thai with a conx over BKK, and SQ conx via SIN. Even UA doesnt fly into MNL. I believe the only US flag carriers there are NW, and CO has service from GUM to MNL. LH and AF pulled out of MNL last year, so Im not sure if the yields are enuf to support additional service or not.
TheNewLowFare
Senior
- Aug 31, 2005
- 394
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I think it is possible for US Airways to service Asia sometime in the future. Hawaii and Vegas would be a great hub for it! 
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
- Banned
- #9
While the specific performance specs - speed, range,load, etc - for the A350 were redacted in the documents filed with the BK court, here's a snipit that was in them that I posted quite a while back:
"One interesting tidbit from the A350 order documents - the "hypothetical" city pairs used to specify minimum useful load and maximum fuel burn were PHL-TLV, PHL-NRT, PHX-NRT, and PHX-FRA."
Jim
"One interesting tidbit from the A350 order documents - the "hypothetical" city pairs used to specify minimum useful load and maximum fuel burn were PHL-TLV, PHL-NRT, PHX-NRT, and PHX-FRA."
Jim
Those routes would go a long way in moving US into the Big Leagues, especially the PHL-TLV and PHL-NRT routes - much needed to keep up with CO. NRT might be a problem though because of high costs and gate availability - KIX might be a better choice. Bet EL AL jumps at the PHL-TLV route first though.
TheWatcher
Senior
- Aug 26, 2002
- 342
- 0
Nah EL AL wont go PHL-TLV, they have that presence taken care of with thier large space in EWR and JFK.
PHL-TLV could work for US.
UA used to serve MNL, on a SFO-SEL-MNL routing (and maybe NRT-MNL too?). It stopped in the late 1990s, IIRC. I seem to recall the reason giving for dropping it was that yields were simply too low. Apparently Philippine Airlines would offer really low fares making it difficult to be profitable in that market.
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