Obviously lots of people care. look at the number of views this post has had
and no one said a thing about not posting any data.... but someone wanted to trot out a story that shows that there really isn't any change in the market position of AA either before or after the merger. AA might be pushing more metal and seats thru LAX but they were in the #1 position before and still are in terms of the local market.
The story should be about the changing market positions of the big 4 in the LAX market - because that has not been a constant.
and when you bother to look at the data for the big 3 cities of the US, AA/US is worse off than they were 7 years ago when the current wave of industry consolidation began.
Sure, AA might catch up in the next few years... but most of us have said for some time that UA isn't going to give anything up in Chicago, NYC facility and slot constraints prohibit any meaningful movement in the NYC market, and LAX simply does not have the real estate to allow any carrier to grow enough to become significantly larger than any other carriers. Further, there is ample evidence that DL and UA have managed to fine tune their facilities and resources at LAX to focus on the local market and grow their share despite increased facilities.
For those who are interested in business issues of the industry, that is a topic worth discussing on an objective basis.
given the vast majority of this board involves whining and complaining by labor and promises by one union to do something which the others have not, business issues are indeed something different.
those who don't have the capacity or desire to talk about business issues can talk about other issues... not a terribly hard concept