LAS being downsized?

[NYGiantsFan90]

US's ASMs at LAS are down 27% year-over-year, which is an insanely huge number.

Lots of flights have been cut.

Anyone know?

 

[FM2436]

US's ASMs at LAS are down 27% year-over-year, which is an insanely huge number.

Lots of flights have been cut.

Anyone know?

Expect to see many low yield, price sensitive, vacation markets have big cuts in services.

 

[Singleflyer]

And they will more the equipment to high yield business markets? Right!

But who will fill the added seats, since they ticked off many high yield fliers and they have gone else where???

Or will the equipment just go out to the desert??

 

[bagchucker]

Expect to see many low yield, price sensitive, vacation markets have big cuts in services.

Wouldn't Hawaii's service come into the play here? Hmmm? What other cities could see reduction? Not too much speculation yet, but with the way fuel is now, either a merger or a slash of service is inevitable.

 

[Singleflyer]

Or maybe they should just raise prices somewhat to cover costs, a novel concept in the airline business

 

[freedom]

I doubt it‘s as easy as you suggest single flyer .Look at some of the states that are getting hit hardest by the mortgage meltdown , if I’m correct isn’t Nevada in the top 5 , and I know AZ has to be near the top …

As the economy drops fewer people will be taking pleasure trips to LAS , the Nevada economy could be significantly affected by this ..


“Nevada's economy, however, is overwhelmingly based on tourism, especially the gambling (legalized in 1931) and resort industries centered in Las Vegas and, to a lesser extent, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Gambling taxes are a primary source of state revenue. The service sector employs about half of Nevada's workersâ€￾
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0859936.html

Althou this could work out for us airways if we play our cards right , as that LAS is one of our major hubs , and seeing as the state is reliant on tourism we might be able to renegotiate lower landing fees etc , and better vacation packages with the hotels on the strip who will undoubtedly be growing increasingly desperate for customers .

 

[Singleflyer]

Freedom, I know it is not as easy as I suggested.

However, if you move equipment from one hub to another you still need to fill seats. What makes you think there is more business to be had elsewhere, or greater yields than they are already receiving in those markets?

Weather we like it or not, the cost of fuel will be high at least for some time if not for ever. I am currently in Canada on business, and regular gas converts out to more than $4.50 per gallon and it has always been that high here, and currently their dollar is doing much better than ours.

The real problem is, the legacy airlines have sold too many cheap seats to vacation destinations, and now when they need to at least break even on those seats, there is no pricing power. The time to do that is when the economy is good. But what do the airline do, the add more seats to sell even cheaper fares.

So if they reduce service enough, I guess it will mean parking some planes.

 

[SS255]

I doubt it‘s as easy as you suggest single flyer .Look at some of the states that are getting hit hardest by the mortgage meltdown , if I’m correct isn’t Nevada in the top 5 , and I know AZ has to be near the top …

AZ, NV and CA are all at the top of the housing bust. The other high-foreclosue state which comes to mind is OH. I think the mortgage situation will get worse before it gets better. People have far fewer dollars to allocate for discretionary spending, so I suspect that the number of leisure travelers will plummet. That leaves US with primarily business travelers, and US has already drive away this customer base. If you add in the fact that fare increases due to skyrocketing fuel costs will further erode the budgets of price-sensitive leisure travelers, it's not looking too good for US (or any of the airlines) these days.

 

[deltawatch]

Have been told that one east city, with 25 RJ's per day, most likely will end up with 12 mainlines per day as the merger progresses.

Sounds like a move away from express carriers coming for some east markets !!!

 

[UWCactus]

Most of the reduction has occured with the night flying. When fuel prices were lower it made more sense to utilize the a/c for night flying at lower fares. Now that fuel is sky high, it makes much less sense to fly those lower margins. In a nutshell, the high price of fuel has contributed to this pulldown for the most part.

 

[wings396]

Based on what I had been told years ago, LAS was never a high yeild market. Even during better times, US didn't operate any large A/C in that market for this reason. Most of the travel to LAS was either FF miles being used up, or tour group operators buying up the seats for discounted fares. Sad to say, but HNL was in the same boat per some UA people that I knew.

 

[Be Careful What You Wish For.]

Have been told that one east city, with 25 RJ's per day, most likely will end up with 12 mainlines per day as the merger progresses.

Sounds like a move away from express carriers coming for some east markets !!!

Can you be more specific or should this be filed w/ "UA buys US"?

 

[phlus2]

Have been told that one east city, with 25 RJ's per day, most likely will end up with 12 mainlines per day as the merger progresses.

Sounds like a move away from express carriers coming for some east markets !!!

IF this is based on fact - this would be good news as far as I am concerned. I would much rather fly on a mainline jet than and RJ - and fewer flights would seem to traslate into less airport congestion as wel.

 

[necigrad]

Based on what I had been told years ago, LAS was never a high yeild market. Even during better times, US didn't operate any large A/C in that market for this reason. Most of the travel to LAS was either FF miles being used up, or tour group operators buying up the seats for discounted fares. Sad to say, but HNL was in the same boat per some UA people that I knew.

"Years ago" (to use your words) HP sent almost every 757 they owned out of LAS every night. Full.

 

[BoeingBoy]

"Years ago" (to use your words) HP sent almost every 757 they owned out of LAS every night. Full.

And not too many years ago (about 3) HP had the cost structure to do OK in that lower yield environment - not great but not terrible either. LCC doesn't.

More specifically about the cutbacks, in a one year period (7/1/07 - 6/30/08) US will have parked 12 737-300's and 1 757. during that same period, 14 E-190's will have been added, but (so far at least) all on the East side. Unless they either start basing or routing the E-190's out west, something has to give in the West system. Given LCC's cost structure, cutting what have become unprofitable routes out west (given LCC's higher intrinsic costs plus current fuel prices) is a natural solution. I'd be surprised if some of the same doesn't happen in the east too.

Jim