High Cost Hindrance

[USA320Pilot]

High Cost Hindrance

ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - While we like rankings that place us at or near the top on customer satisfaction and operations performance, US Airways finished a disappointing first in a different kind of ranking released this week. Our first-quarter unit costs were higher than every other legacy carrier and 48 percent above the lowest cost budget carrier, JetBlue, according to data released this week in Commercial Aviation Today, a daily newsletter published by consulting firm GCW.

US Airways' mainline cost per available seat mile at the end of March was 11.68 cents. The next highest was Delta Air Lines at 10.38 cents. On Monday Delta warned it might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it is unable to obtain cost cuts from its employees. Among the seven hub-and-spoke carriers, American had the lowest unit cost at 9.49 cents. In the low-cost group, JetBlue had the lowest costs at 6.08 cents per seat mile, while AirTran's were the highest in the category at 8.26 cents.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[USAirBoyA330]

Uhhhhhhh.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. This is getting so OLD. We know this information and they just keep beating a dead horse or rewriting it EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's quite B O R I N G.

 

[USA320Pilot]

US Majors lost $1.6 billion in first quarter

NEW YORK (ATWOnline.com) - The 10 US Major passenger airlines in aggregate lost $1.62 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, somewhat improved from a loss of $1.94 billion in the year-ago period but a hugely disappointing beginning to what had been expected to be a turnaround year for the industry.

Revenue for the group climbed 10.3% to $21.15 billion, in part reflecting the negative impact of SARS and terrorism fears on traffic in the year-ago period. Despite soaring fuel prices, operating expenses actually declined 0.5% to $22.1 billion as cost-cutting efforts took hold. But the industry still posted an operating loss of $959.7 million, although this was reduced from a $3 billion deficit in the year-ago period.

Three companies managed operating profits: AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines; America West Holdings, parent of America West Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. Of these, just AWAH and SWA enjoyed bottom-line profits as well.

Traffic for the 10 rose 7.1% to 142.7 billion RPKs while the capacity increase was held to just 3.8% to 198.6 billion ASKs. Load factor improved 2.3 points to 71.9%.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[USA320Pilot]

Oil Prices Flirt with Record

Complete Story

Regards,

USA320Pilot

 

[Phantom Fixer]

Look at the facts of the matter. U is not an LCC type operation...nor is it a US Major in the classic sense of the term.

Uair does not have a big presence outside of the eastern US....and mearly dabbles into international service into the carribean and europe , some of which is only on a seasonal basis.

The fact that U's cost per seat mile is higher than the other so-called legacy carriers is in direct perportion to all the things we aren't.

We are not a big player on our own soil west of the Mississippi River , who's fault is that? I do not think for a moment that any employee has sold off anything that we once had on the west coast...and I'm equally certain that nobody in the laboring force has ever said No to expanding our operations west or an any direction to help offset the negative set mile cost affects we are plagued with.

Beating the employee's for years upon years of short-sighted or visionless leadership is not the answer here.

Now that ALPA has signed of on LOA 91...and have effectively opened the door to sell of the RJ's or SJ's , thus decreasing the exposure of our debts with GECAS in that regard , it's time to grow the fleet and stretch our legs and wings into longer haul flying to other areas of the country and the world that out loyal patrons just might desire to go.

If living in a box is to steep?....it's time to think and live outside of the box we have historically painted ourselves into.

Brow beating your loyal and dedicated workforce is not going to change things enough to matter.....it's time to bust a move outward and upward , if in fact real positive results are what we as a company are seeking? I for one would love to see some real visionary moves take place in this regard.

 

[geo1004]

...and mearly dabbles into international service into the carribean and europe , some of which is only on a seasonal basis.

Don't discount this. US is the 2nd largest carrier to the Caribbean - after AA. And with ten European destinations their European reach is nothing to scoff at.

 

[mwereplanes]

After a trip through C11 and billions of dollars of employee concessions we still top the list in our CASM. The cretins who arranged our structural inefficiencies as well as our C11 foray have extracted upwards of 37 million bucks into their personal checking accounts and are now gone. And here we are.

Now the continuing drumbeat of yet more employee concessions are the major key to our success. Our new leader implores us to forget about the past and move forward. Our pilots have given the green light to yet more outsourcing and are ready to once again open their wallets even after seeing the highest cost CASM after all we have given.

Simply amazing.

mr

 

[SpinDoc]

Don't discount this. US is the 2nd largest carrier to the Caribbean - after AA. And with ten European destinations their European reach is nothing to scoff at.

The original Pan Am was also huge in the Carribbean, but
their costs were too high and the 1991 Gulf War set them
back far enough that they never recovered. Us is on the
brink of becoming the next Pan Am if we can't get our
costs in line with the LCC's. Pan Am also had LHR authority
but they had to sell their routes during hard times.

 

[Phantom Fixer]

The original Pan Am was also huge in the Carribbean, but
their costs were too high and the 1991 Gulf War set them
back far enough that they never recovered. Us is on the
brink of becoming the next Pan Am if we can't get our
costs in line with the LCC's. Pan Am also had LHR authority
but they had to sell their routes during hard times.

To the previous yahoo. I'm not scoffing at our international operations..I'm pointing out that they are far too few in terms of off-setting the high costs of simply bouncing up and down the eastern seaboard.

U has to get it going in far bigger terms and scale if the current domestic routes are ever to be off-set in perportion?

Spin Doc....Pan Am died from poor leadership and a poor domestic infrastructure to support its once glowing internatonal network. Pan Am's earlier takeover of National was far too little and way to late to stem the tide , U on the other hand has an excellent domestic infrastructure minus the west coast to support a larger international presence , if it would only elect to exploit those advantages?

U's own leadership brags about our exposure to the eastern population centers..yet reserves itself from using it to its full potential and advantage. The fact that many other carriers would love to fill the voids we would leave speaks highly in favor of my observations.

U's biggest problem is the same problem it's always had...or at least has had since the mergers took place , that being a real leadership corp , with long term aspirations beyond filling thier own pockets and leaving a mess for the next wouldbe profiteer to muttle through.

 

[robbedagain]

what if usair did something like this would it work: put the 767s ont he transcontinental routes, 757s to florida 321s to the carribean, put 733 and 734s on the midwest routes and use the 330s on all international routes, and even open up new west coast markets such as slc pdx etc with the 767s and use the emb-170s to open routes on the east and the midwest and put the crj 701s with the other rjs without having to cut employees wages?

 

[Light Years]

Its funny, the same thing is being discussed in the post "My plan to save US Airways" (I think its called)... the stunted route structure, and the odd identity of being a major airline while never really being one.

 

[AP Tech]

I find it interesting that AMR had the lowest CSM among the so called legacy carriers. I believe I read somewhere that they do the majority of their maintenance including overhaul in-house? Just maybe U's problem lies someplace other that its labor force?

 

[tadjr]

Maybe someone can explain to me why we still have 5 mainline and 2 Express gates at a city that has 21 jet and 16 commuter flights? That is about 4 flights PER GATE PER DAY. Does anyone else see a waste of lease money here? If we are truly going to start more point to point flying and increase utilization (sometime before I retire) then I can see the need to continue the leases, but I'm sure this is occuring everywhere in the system. not just where I work. Thanks to scheduling there might be a time during the day where an extra gate is needed, but I'm sure that the single use of a county gate would be cheaper in the end than a continuing solo lease on a gate. I know they rejected leases in PIT and MCO (and probably a couple other cities), but why are we continuing them at other places? Isnt this a high cost hindrance?

 

[insp89]

High Cost Hindrance

ARLINGTON (theHub.com) - While we like rankings that place us at or near the top on customer satisfaction and operations performance, US Airways finished a disappointing first in a different kind of ranking released this week. Our first-quarter unit costs were higher than every other legacy carrier and 48 percent above the lowest cost budget carrier, JetBlue, according to data released this week in Commercial Aviation Today, a daily newsletter published by consulting firm GCW.

US Airways' mainline cost per available seat mile at the end of March was 11.68 cents. The next highest was Delta Air Lines at 10.38 cents. On Monday Delta warned it might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it is unable to obtain cost cuts from its employees. Among the seven hub-and-spoke carriers, American had the lowest unit cost at 9.49 cents. In the low-cost group, JetBlue had the lowest costs at 6.08 cents per seat mile, while AirTran's were the highest in the category at 8.26 cents.

Regards,

USA320Pilot

320, Are you suggesting that U's [MAIN LINE] CASM and UNIT COSTS are 100% due to employee wages, benefits and work rules ?? I'm sure you are aware that the TYPE of flying that U does greatly affects these easily skewed numbers that you have printed here. I am sure you would agree that the company could [if they wanted to] lower these CASM & UNIT COST numbers by utilizing the equiptment and employees TODAY with the labor contracts that are NOW in place. I'm not sure if these numbers you have printed here include FUEL costs or not, But I did find it interesting that SOUTHWEST'S CEO stated in USA TODAY that LUV would of lost money last quarter if it wasn't for FUEL HEDGING !!! I would suggest to management if they can't figure out how to HEDGE FUEL, Just hedge the same rate as LUV, MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO..

 

[unit4clt]

Usa320pilot,

Why do'nt you get management to adress the real problem here at USairways, which is the HIGH COST of operating RJS? Mainline employees should not be required to subsidize the RJ operators at USAirways!!!! :down: :angry: