Eagle pulling out of SJU?

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Jul 16, 2011
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A Puerto Rican newspaper says the regional affiliate of American Airlines is planning to suspend its operations in Puerto Rico next year as it tries to shave $75 million per year from labor costs.
El Vocero reported Sunday that American Eagle will close its Puerto Rico operations by March 2013. The paper is citing a Friday memo from the Association of Flight Attendants to American Eagle's roughly 150 employees on the U.S. island.
The flight attendants union did not immediately respond to calls Sunday seeking comment.
American Airlines spokeswoman Dori Alvarez said only that the airline has not made any schedule change announcements for American Eagle in San Juan.
American and parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in November.
 
Hardly a shock, given the ATR retirements. The Embraers can't handle the bags or cargo that the ATRs did, and SJU simply isn't as important as it was 20 years ago. There are much nicer resorts elsewhere, the cruise business has moved to places like Galveston & Port Everglades, so aside from history, why bother with Puerto Rico anymore?
 
Although SJU is probably history, it's possible that AA might outsource some flying from SJU to the smaller Caribbean islands (too small for 738s from MIA) to a lower-cost operator.
 
Hardly a shock, given the ATR retirements. The Embraers can't handle the bags or cargo that the ATRs did, and SJU simply isn't as important as it was 20 years ago. There are much nicer resorts elsewhere, the cruise business has moved to places like Galveston & Port Everglades, so aside from history, why bother with Puerto Rico anymore?
When is the president going to open up Cuba?

Could AA fly something larger into Puerto Rico?

Is Puerto Rico considered a stop over or do the carriers just fly straight to the island destinations?
 
Although SJU is probably history, it's possible that AA might outsource some flying from SJU to the smaller Caribbean islands (too small for 738s from MIA) to a lower-cost operator.

That would be my guess too, maybe JB.
 
That would be my guess too, maybe JB.

I have worked in SJUMM for 10 years now. When I started here there was 40 flights day down from a high of 60 flights. SJU was going to be a major hub! hell they flew A300 and DC10 to the Islands. Then when Eastern took a nose dive and American took over MIA, that was the end of SJU. Slowly they kept pulling flights and we are down to 16 flights a day. Eagle got strangled, American fed them passengers and when they started pulling flights there were no passengers to fill there airplanes.So you ask who will American outsource? Well you know this airline, it's called JETBLUE, remember American wants to domestic code sharing, JetBlue has more than 40 flights out of here now. Seemed like every time we dropped a flight JetBlue picked it up and Apr 1st we lose BDL flight and guess who's picking it up. There are a lot of things going on behind closed doors we dont know about. I expect we lose JFK flights after all this.Jetblues major hub.
 
<_< ---- Eagle pulling out of SJU? ---- Old news! I posted that more than a month ago! As for JetBlue, they're already flying into the Caribbean! So American shrinks again! I'm telling you people, history seems to be repeating itself! I hate to say it, but------- AA is looking more like TWA every day! But my sources, down in the Islands, tell me AA is nosing around for someone to code share with!
 
Like it was said in some of the previous post SJU
relevance to AA network started to diminished years
ago with the build up of the MIA hub. In this case there
is no doubt AA made the right call. Sure it is sad to see
what is left of AA in SJU but who would have thought
that MIA was going to become the crown jewel of AA.
When you look at realistically it's the right thing to do.
 
If we survive this bankruptcy then a merger with Jetblue would seem in place. This will allow AA to get back the Caribbean and other routes we lost on the east coast over the past few years.
 
<_< -------Another factor that may have added to their decision to pull out could be, the rise in fuel price due to the closure of the oil refinery, Hovensa, on St.Croix. It has supplied fuel to the whole region for the past forty years. With it's closer, SJU would have to get it's fuel from the mainland, thus adding extra cost to shipping it in.
 
If we survive this bankruptcy then a merger with Jetblue would seem in place. This will allow AA to get back the Caribbean and other routes we lost on the east coast over the past few years.
are you sure you really want to risk a merger with a non-union airline?
 
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If we survive this bankruptcy then a merger with Jetblue would seem in place. This will allow AA to get back the Caribbean and other routes we lost on the east coast over the past few years.

American seems to be rolling out the red carpet for JetBlue in some other cities too.

How does there Airbus fleet align with A/A's aircraft order?
 
<_< -------Another factor that may have added to their decision to pull out could be, the rise in fuel price due to the closure of the oil refinery, Hovensa, on St.Croix. It has supplied fuel to the whole region for the past forty years. With it's closer, SJU would have to get it's fuel from the mainland, thus adding extra cost to shipping it in.
The location of oil refineries has nothing - zero - to do with the decision to pull down Eagle flying at SJU.

The ATRs are being returned as they're old, somewhat expensive and apparently, not carrying enough lucrative passengers.
 
The location of oil refineries has nothing - zero - to do with the decision to pull down Eagle flying at SJU.

The ATRs are being returned as they're old, somewhat expensive and apparently, not carrying enough lucrative passengers.
<_< ----- O.K. Don't get your panties in a wade! But if you have to ship in fuel from,Texas to SJU, vrs. STX, what do you think will be the @ gallon price difference between the two. I realize this alone wouldn't be a contributing factor in making their decision, but it should have been factored in. And if it wasn't, maybe it should have been!