American Airlines seeks more gates at Charlotte airport
- Thread starter 700UW
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I was surprised to find out that CLT was second biggest hub at AA, I thought MIA and ORD was bigger, but here at ORD we did lose gates to Eagle and USair.
jcw said:
Well..it surprised me too...however, there's still time. I guess so far there has been a need to rationalize airports so much.
Did you happen to notice this piece of the the article?
"The airport had planned to build a new international concourse north of Concourse A, on the site of the old rental car lots. That plan has been scrapped."
It will be interesting to see what the final plan is for international traffic. I think that will be telling of the future of CLT.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article29478190.html#storylink=cpy
LD3
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There was a plan at one time to put two w/b gates on E Ramp with a scaled down FIS down below. After the dictator left that plan was promptly scraped... I would assume they will look harder at the C & B doglegs... For the amount of flights coming in, the terminal footprint is just too small and locked between two taxiways...
Four new gates in the commuter terminal doesn't necessarily portend additional growth - the plan might be to lessen the congestion.jcw said:
I don't agree with everything that MAH4546 posts, but I agree with him that CLT is in for some more downsizing by AA come December, 2016 (once the three-year promise to the various state Attorneys General to not significantly alter existing hub service expires). This summer's international schedule from CLT is smaller than last summer's schedule, and I expect that by summer 2017, it will be even smaller than today.
CLT canned the planned international terminal in May, 2014 once the City Council realized that new AA had international gateways in cities besides CLT:AirwAr said:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article9124208.html
Two weeks later, it was revealed that CLT attracted the lowest unit revenue (RASM) of any east coast hub:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article9127097.html
Lowest unit revenue of any east coast hub? That's not good news. For 20 straight years, US Airways has had the lowest yield and unit revenue in the Atlantic segment of any USA-based airline, and that held true in 2014.
It's those cold, objective facts that cause me (and, I suspect, MAH4546) to predict that CLT's international operations will be trimmed even more in the next couple of years. With fewer international flights to feed, there won't be the need for as many domestic connecting flights. Downsizing is inevitable.
Black Magic
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To be fair, FWAAA, a likely reason why CLT RASM is low is because of the amount of low yielding connecting passengers. AA can't make that strategy work but they also have 5 hubs on the east coast and that doesn't count LGA as a hub. Low yields are not reflective of the value of the local market.
CLT's other problem is that it relies too much on RJs which increase costs.
AA has to rationalize its network and eliminate the competition between its own hubs. Too many hubs also increases CASM and keeps AA from using larger mainline aircraft which limits employee growth.
CLT has a lot of strategic value but the number of hubs is the problem
Also AA can't reduce the size of CLT much or it loses its competitiveness to ATL
CLT recognizes these dynamics and will move cautiously on airport expenditures
CLT's other problem is that it relies too much on RJs which increase costs.
AA has to rationalize its network and eliminate the competition between its own hubs. Too many hubs also increases CASM and keeps AA from using larger mainline aircraft which limits employee growth.
CLT has a lot of strategic value but the number of hubs is the problem
Also AA can't reduce the size of CLT much or it loses its competitiveness to ATL
CLT recognizes these dynamics and will move cautiously on airport expenditures
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