Dave Screwed Up Again

CaptBud330

Senior
Aug 20, 2002
255
2
Dave, when are you and BB going to do something preemptive like lower fares and increase service before our competition steals mor customers. Or Dave, do you want to give up Philly too? Do you guys have a clue about running an airline?


ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 2003--AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AAI - News), today announced that, effective February 4, 2004, the low-fare airline will enhance service to/from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) by adding a third daily nonstop flight to Fort Lauderdale, a fourth daily nonstop flight to Orlando and one daily nonstop flight to West Palm Beach. With the addition of these new flights, AirTran Airways will operate 19 flights a day from Philadelphia. All flights will be operated with new Boeing 717 jet aircraft. Tickets are now available for purchase.
"We continue to see increased demand in the Philadelphia market, and we're pleased to address that demand by offering enhanced service to better meet our customers' needs," said Kevin Healy, AirTran Airways' vice president of planning and sales. "The addition of this new service will allow AirTran Airways to offer the Philadelphia community everyday low-fare, nonstop flights to Atlanta, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach."
 
How many more flights can US reasonably add to these destinations. MCO and FLL already have A LOT of lift, and PBI's lift is decent. Are more flights in these markets really necessary? Airtran is cherry picking routes. I don't think these additional Airtran flights would really generate that much more traffic over what is currently generated in these markets.
 
If Airtran is adding service at Philly, I can guarantee it's not because their planes are empty. They see an opportunity to undercut U and steal pax. The next thing we will see is a reduction in our lift to those cities with Dave's excuse being the loads are inadequate to support the service. I stand by my statement that these guys don't know Jack about running an airline.
 
They smell blood. This small carrier has enjoyed great success by targeting Delta, which has respnded poorly to the challenge, and let AirTran gain real market share at their expense. USAirways, whose standard response is to reduce service and raise fares, offers them a similar target. While US buys more commuter aircraft to fly to big cities, apparently in the belief that the average American is shrinking, AirTran orders and options 100, primarily, Next Generatiion Boeing 737's.
 
It has also been in the headlines that American(a full service carrier which flies real aircraft) is EXPANDING service in several cities, one of them being Pittsburgh. They plan on adding a PIT-MIA daily. U used to have three non- stops daily with a fourth on Saturday's to cover cruise ship traffic, now we are down to one daily non -stop with the rest being connections. With American stepping into this market what does it tell you? There must be a demand, why is U not attempting to fill it? Kudo's for our highly compensated and valuable marketing team!!!!!! :blink:
 
Capt.Bud,
I concur with your thinking and I am confident I can speak for at least a few thousand other USAir employees. These folks know Jack about what they are doing. I wish someone would buy a vowel and get a clue.
 
I believe that American is coming into PIT starting Nov. 1 with two non-stops daily.

one to MIA and DFW.

As we leave PIT, others will surely come in. Just a matter of time before we start to get edged out of the market place.
 
AirTran is working its way into DCA as well. FLL, RSW, and PBI this winter.
 
Actually Dave..Lorenzo has already issued a call to arms. The enemy is it's employees. You know the lower rank and file, certainly not any one at The Crystal Palace eight floor.


You Go Dave Lorenzo...
 
There's no money to be made in Florida. You can fill the seats of a 330 to FLL and you won't make a cent. All you can do is match the LCC's fare and hope for the best. Cover losses in FL with BDL-PIT fights or something.
 
What these other airlines are doing are trying to steel O&D passengers away from US Airways hubs. Steel is a harsh word, because US Airways has every opportunity to prevent competition from coming in if their fares are reasonable in the first place. In most cases it fails to do that and they charge a ridiculous fare that forces people to react by driving to the next closest airport, or flying another airline.

What US Airways problem is, is they ignore everyone including the competition. The airline comes in gets situated, starts taking passengers, passengers realize they don't have to drive to another airport and that they paid twice as much last time on US Airways for the same flight. It shouldn't ge this far, but it does, and word spreads, and the next thing you know US Airways is scratching their head and they start cutting service.

I like Us Airways, I really do, they are my first choice as a paying passenger, so I don't mean to bash them, but it has to start looking ahead not over it's shoulder. I am flying American over the Christmas holiday over US Airways out of CLT to MIA. Both airlines flying the route at the same time to and from, about 5 minutes apart from each other. Americans flight was $130.00 cheaper then US Airways. Now that is just for one ticket. Think about a family of four, that would be a savings of $520.00. I don't know about you, but to me that is worth making my way to terminal A in CLT this Christmas. To be competitive in the future, US Airways has to be competitive now!
 
I don't think US is uncompetitve on this route. US is probably sold out of seats in that fare class. There was a story on the news in CLT over a month ago that holiday seats out of CLT were rapidly filling on US Airways. I am sure US probably has some cheap seats out of places like DFW where AA is big.
 
The idea that you can't make money flying to Florida is not right. With the cost reductions and inflght service cutbacks, it's hard to imagine why USAirways can't. One thought is that the largest origination point for such activity is the New York area, and the company walked away from that. It appears to me that the average fare in the market is 200 bucks, give or take. An advance purchase to the West Coast is maybe 100 bucks more, even though the distance is nearly 3 times. If you want to talk about now versus then, obviously the JetBlue argument wins. Competing with them at this point is tough. But they are there thanks to the $400 upstate and regional fares, which the entrenched carriers tried to hang onto. Once they achieved brand (if not cult) status, as a result of busting that, Florida was a piece of cake. And they are a brand. Run a fare search engine for flights to Florida, and you see they are often not the lowest, but nobody out there would believe that unless you showed them. Meanwhile, this company cuts schedules, then adds flights. Take PHL-PBI or DCA- PBI. They take them out..they put them back...and this has been happening for years. First there are no early AM services, then they come back. It's not seasonal, its erratic. I just finished rebooking some PHL to PBI flights when a new late afternoon service suddenly showed up in the sked. I have also noticed lighter than normal loads on Express services out of the hubs. Could it be that as capacity is squeezed, you can't get enough pax through the pipe to fully utilize available seats at that end? I needed to do a quick trip from NYC to California. I bring up Orbitz, and every major is at $500 to $700, with numerous options lower than that. And then there's US at $1000, with a change of plane, and a Dash 8 back from PIT. It's kind of like hedge trimming. Each time you tinker, the other end goes out of line. I just keep wondering if anybody on top flies the line or looks at a three dimensional view of the business. It can't all be Hurricanes and lowfare competitors.