AA building more Miami's

[FA Mikey]

"The manner in which we are trying to build share is unconventional, in the sense that historically airlines have built franchises through buying them, or built them when the market was soft," said Vasu Raja, American's managing director of corporate planning, in an interview with TheStreet. "But we have done this before (in Miami). We have a line of sight on how we will build five world class hubs, and we have partnerships in place to help us do that."

Raja sketched out American's global approach, drawing on the evolution of the Miami hub, widely recognized as one of the domestic airline industry's most successful hub operations. As even McAdoo noted, "American clearly has a broad productive hub in Miami." Dominance in Miami has enabled American to dominate an entire continent.

full story here

 

[PhatSappy]

"The manner in which we are trying to build share is unconventional, in the sense that historically airlines have built franchises through buying them, or built them when the market was soft," said Vasu Raja, American's managing director of corporate planning, in an interview with TheStreet. "But we have done this before (in Miami). We have a line of sight on how we will build five world class hubs, and we have partnerships in place to help us do that."

Raja sketched out American's global approach, drawing on the evolution of the Miami hub, widely recognized as one of the domestic airline industry's most successful hub operations. As even McAdoo noted, "American clearly has a broad productive hub in Miami." Dominance in Miami has enabled American to dominate an entire continent.

full story here

RE.
- Raja: "American clearly has a broad productive hub in Miami."
- Writer follows: Dominance in Miami has enabled American to dominate an entire continent.

Baloney. AA continues to make mistakes over and over again. The top managers are now mostly from other companies, and have empowered idiots below them. Liars and thieves who take massive bonuses for unprofitable decisions. Why not dominate THIS continent? You continue to buy up and abandon airlines, routes and equipment. When you do succeed and develop a good route, you abandon it to other carriers. Sounds like the fix is in for AA managers; but the company? Ha!

 

[WorldTraveler]

RE.
- Raja: "American clearly has a broad productive hub in Miami."
- Writer follows: Dominance in Miami has enabled American to dominate an entire continent.

Baloney. AA continues to make mistakes over and over again. The top managers are now mostly from other companies, and have empowered idiots below them. Liars and thieves who take massive bonuses for unprofitable decisions. Why not dominate THIS continent? You continue to buy up and abandon airlines, routes and equipment. When you do succeed and develop a good route, you abandon it to other carriers. Sounds like the fix is in for AA managers; but the company? Ha!

dang, son, if I said this.. I'd be into four digit respect ratings by dark tonite... even if it is true. Apparently it makes some people feel better if they get to throw stones at other people as if that will "shut up" the truth.
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You see, Phat, there are people here who don't like to hear the truth. And they learned their "trade" from folks in FTW who can put all kinds of spin on the fact that AA is down to two profitable parts of its network at this point.. its MIA hub and Latin America operation and its DFW hub... both of wihch remain what they are only because AA has no competition in those specific regions.
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They (AA mgmt and the fAAn club here) also miss the fact that in the space of a decade AA has gone from the #1 airline across the Atlantic AND in the US to #3 or 4 in each region as well as the Pacific... and while it likes to use the word "dominance" (but doesn't like it when other carriers use it about their own operations), the reality is that AA doesn't have a majority of US-Latin traffic or revenue.
In fact, AA carries less than 30% of US-Latin America traffic and UA/CO is now about 80% of the size of AA in the region while also being larger than AA in every other global region including in key markets like NYC, CHI, and LAX - cities that AA calls parts of its cornerstone strategy.
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note also that at the end of the article, even AA's network big wig notes that, yes, there are routes that don't do so well but AA holds onto them for strategic reasons anyway.
Apparently, the McprognosticAAtor was right all along.

 

[commavia]

This article is hitting on a massive success story: AA is the dominant force in Latin America (particularly excluding Mexico) among U.S. carriers specifically because of the franchise that has been methodically and proactively built (billions in investment) over the last 20 years in Miami.

As to the larger AA network, I sincerely hope that AA is genuine in its desire to begin organically growing internationally. Delta and United have grown, particularly in Asia and Europe, largely through mergers - thus, it's sort of obvious that United+Continental to Europe is going to be larger than AA, and that Delta+Northwest to Asia will always be larger than AA, etc. Nonetheless, AA need not follow that path - their network is perfectly suited to organic growth to both regions, and is already dominant in Latin America, where the next largest competitor carries roughly half the passengers (including Mexico, if you exclude Mexico it's an even more dramatic gulf between #1 AA and #2).

That all being said, my hope is tempered with the reality that AA's own organic growth in these regions has not kept pace with some competitors in some markets. And to some extent, that's fine - AA need not fly to nearly as many cities as Delta in Europe, or as United in Asia, to be competitive in either place. With strong ATI/JV partnerships now in place in Europe based on the #1 European market to/from the U.S., and in Asia based on the #1 Asian market to/from the U.S., AA has a strong base upon which to selectively build and grow.

The brand, the hubs, and the overall AA network are more than capable of supporting growth in these markets - particularly once the economy recovers. AA has the people, has the experience, has the hubs, and has (and will soon have more) of the jets. What AA needs is the will to do it, which I wholeheartedly hope AA will soon demonstrate.

 

[WorldTraveler]

A generally accurate assessment, Commavia.
to be fair, though, AA DID acquire its Latin franchise and its base in MIA.. it managed to push out UA and in so doing pretty well gained a hold on the Latin market which it hasn't let go of.... it is correct that AA has invested alot of time and energy to make its MIA hub what it is... but remember it also closed other hubs in order to provide the resources to build MIA.
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But you also can't escape the fact that AA has given up its "largest carrier" status in the US as a whole and to/from Europe in the past 10 years....
Sure other carriers merged and acquired, but AA said it didn't need to do that... so the burden falls on them to prove they made the right strategic decision.
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Your enthusiasm for AA's partnerships overlooks the fact that AA and JL combined are still smaller than DL alone in Japan or UA plus CO plus NH.
And that BA plus AA does indeed dominate (and that verb is appropriate in this context) the US-UK market.. but AA/BA/IB's presence in the rest of Europe is absolutely tiny compared with its peers - and those peers still have a decent position in the UK market, including DL's irritating positions (if nothing else) in BOS and MIA to LHR, markets which AA has DOMINATED for years among US carriers.
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Of course AA is capable of building on what it has.. but it was capable of building on its strengths throughout its system for the better part of a decade as well but largely did not.
Some of us want to see AA use those new 773ERs to fly to places that could significantly expand AA's reach - but so far as we know, AA doesn't have a contract w/ its pilots to fly them further than on approx 10 hour flights due to the greater weight of the 773ERs.
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Let's not underestimate the desire of other carriers to build their franchise in markets which have been strong for AA and which could provide them with significant amounts of revenue.
So, yes, we want to see AA build like they did in MIA.. but if they do it at the expense of further pulling down ORD or JFK or being unable to stand against UA's direct competition on nearly all AA Asia routes (do you think they forget MIA-S. America?), then I'm not sure that you can crow about AA's accomplishments as it becomes even LESS global than it was 10 years ago.

 

[Mach85ER]

AA doesn't have a contract w/ its pilots to fly them further than on approx 10 hour flights due to the greater weight of the 773ERs.

What exactly are you talking about?

 

[WorldTraveler]

Does AA have a rate and agreement for the 773ER or not? It has been reported here and elsewhere by multiple people that AA and APA do not have rates for the 773ER and AA can operate the 773 up to the MTOW of the 772ER but not to the full MTOW of the 773ER - which would make the 773ER good for only about 10 hr flights.
True or false?

 

[damajagua]

ORD-DEL is way over 10 hours and AA is flying the route.
More like 16 hours.

 

[IORFA]

ORD-DEL is way over 10 hours and AA is flying the route.
More like 16 hours.

Due to a specific LOA for that route.

 

[FWAAA]

ORD-DEL is way over 10 hours and AA is flying the route.
More like 16 hours.

As IORFA mentioned, DEL exists because of a special exception to the duty day limitation found in the APA contract, but that isn't what WT is talking about. WT is assuming that AA can force the APA to fly the new 777-323ERs (77W) even though there is no negotiated green book rate for the 77W, and I think he's mistaken about that.

There is a green book rate for the 777-300 (NOT the ER model), so WT is assuming that the 77W can be flown light-weight (no heavier than the 777-223 at MTOW) and thus, if that fantasy were true, the 77W would only be able to fly about 10 hours. Perhaps AA management thinks the 77W can be flown under the 777-300 green book rates (with low MTOW) but I doubt the APA sees it that way.

 

[eolesen]

Keep in mind that the 300ER didn't enter service until several years after the book rates were negotiated (I don't think anyone was thinking about adding anything to the RPA in 2003). The current APA leadership might be willing to do a side letter on that basis, provided the rates were appropriate...

 

[aapitbull]

Keep in mind that the 300ER didn't enter service until several years after the book rates were negotiated (I don't think anyone was thinking about adding anything to the RPA in 2003). The current APA leadership might be willing to do a side letter on that basis, provided the rates were appropriate...

Rumor from a couple of flight crews at DFW is a T/A for the pilots this week I am skeptical but we will see.

 

[damajagua]

Due to a specific LOA for that route.

JFK-NRT almost 14 hours.

 

[WorldTraveler]

thank you FWAAA for clarifying the current situation - and summarizing the specualtion about the 773ER for AA, all of which has been postulated by others
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bottom line is that AA is taking a gamble in adding new aircraft without an agreement to fly them.. andi it is very possible that the APA could take advantage of that opportunity to push what it wants....
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AA doesn't operate any 773ERs now but it does operate 772ERs although apparently limited in flight length....
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keep in mind also that the current limitations on longhaul 772ER flying will only be transferred to the 773ER until the issue of relief crew staffing is addressed... IIRC the issue is that AA apparently believes there should be only one captain (several US airlines believe this) while the only US airline that operates flights over 16 hours using the 773ERs sistership, the 77LR, staffs its flights with 2 captains and 2 FOs.... obviously DL decided that growing the network was worth the difference in pay between a captain and FO.
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bottom line is that growth with the 773ER esp. to the extent of that aircraft's wonderful capabilities is limited by the same labor issues that have dogged AA for nearly a decade.
If AA mgmt can use the 773ER as a carrot to overcome the labor problems that exist and get an agreement with the APA that would return AA to a position of competitiveness, AA's future will look a whole lot brighter

 

[Hopeful]

Rumor from a couple of flight crews at DFW is a T/A for the pilots this week I am skeptical but we will see.

Funny you mention that....there is a hush-hush situation occuring with reps from Airbus and Embraer visiting HDQ recently...

I don't what for sure, but there is something afoot with regards to AA's strategy and negotiations with all three unions.