las vegas hub to close

etops1

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Dec 6, 2003
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i know we have a a thread on hubs. buti think this deserves its own thread. my colleuge 903aw posted this aricle on the hub thread but this one needs its own.





A US Airways passenger jet takes off from McCarran International Airport in February. The carrier operates about 100 round trips daily to and from Las Vegas.

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US Airways, the second-busiest operator at McCarran International Airport, has notified its workers that it will discontinue its hub operation in Las Vegas and curtail the number of flights here.

US Airways currently operates about 100 round trips daily to McCarran. The airline, based in Tempe, Ariz., had 131 daily round trips to and from Las Vegas a year ago but began scaling back its “night hub†operations to cut costs in the past few months.

The airline’s cuts signal further declines in the tourism industry that drives the Las Vegas economy. They also highlight the struggle airlines face as they are squeezed by demands for low fares and the soaring cost of jet fuel. The price of a barrel of oil hit a record $120 this week.

A spokesman for US Airways would not confirm that a decision has been made on cutbacks, saying only that the company is evaluating options to reduce the number of flights to and from Las Vegas.

But US Airways employees at McCarran said they were told the airline plans to discontinue its hub operation in Las Vegas on Aug. 19.

US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said that even if the airline trims its schedule, it would avoid furloughs or layoffs of its more than 1,000 employees in Las Vegas.

McCarran officials had no comment on the report. A decrease in flights could result in a decline in revenue for McCarran, because landing fees are part of what the airport collects from all airlines.

US Airways was short on details of prospective cuts at McCarran because the airline has been in the news all week for another reason: It’s a potential merger partner with Chicago-based United Airlines.

On Sunday, another prospective United merger partner, Houston-based Continental Airlines, formally announced its decision to operate independently of United. That opened the door for talks between United and US Airways. By midweek, both companies said merger talks were in “advanced stages†with an announcement possible within two weeks.

Durrant said the airline could not speculate on merger prospects and wouldn’t say whether flight cutbacks at McCarran or any other airport were in any way related to merger talks.

United is the third-busiest carrier at McCarran with an average of 39 flights a day to and from Las Vegas.

Aviation analysts say US Airways’ possible cuts at McCarran shouldn’t have an effect on Las Vegas, especially if it’s the airline’s hub operation that is lost. In the past, when airlines cut capacity, low-cost carriers have picked up the slack. But they could affect Las Vegas because in an era of $120-a-barrel oil, even low-cost operators may not be able to deliver that level of capacity.

In an airline hub-and-spoke system, flights arrive and depart within a two- to three-hour window so passengers can change planes to other destinations. US Airways has maintained two “banks†of flights at McCarran after 9 p.m. The first is between 9 and 11 p.m., when the airline operates an average of seven flights. The second is from 11 p.m. to midnight, involving 23 flights.

If the entire night hub operation is discontinued, eliminating both banks of flights, Las Vegas could lose 30 flights, or about one-third of its operation.

Passengers would feel the pinch in a loss of convenience. Las Vegas has been a popular night hub for US Airways and other airlines because passengers not only transfer to other flights, but can arrive in the late hours and still have ground transportation amenities because of the city’s 24-hour lifestyle. The night schedule is also helpful to local businesspeople who want to fly to the East Coast and arrive at the start of the day.

But within the past several months, US Airways has determined that its combination of low fares and skyrocketing fuel costs makes it more economical for the company to park its planes than to run them to Las Vegas at night.

Since April 2007, US Airways has cut the number of flights arriving by 23 percent — which corresponds directly with the airline’s passenger performance for March, according to statistics released by McCarran this week.

US Airways’ passenger counts were down 24 percent in March to 684,200. That and United’s 12 percent decline to 266,220 passengers over the same period led to an overall decline of nearly 2 percent in arriving and departing passengers at the airport.

Overall, 4.12 million passengers flew in and out of McCarran in March. Although that represented a decline in traffic, it was being compared with a high number: 4.19 million passengers into and out of McCarran in March 2007. At the time, that was a single-month record. It was surpassed in August.

Southwest Airlines, the busiest carrier at McCarran, increased traffic by 4.3 percent over March 2007 with 1.43 million passengers.

No. 4 Delta Air Lines and No. 5 American Airlines had months comparable to the previous year’s.

(Editor's note: This story was updated to include that Durrant said the airline could not speculate on merger prospects.)
 
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ok, see . i know i should research things before i post but i sent an e-mail to kirby about this and he just shot one back saying this is not true . so we wil just have to wait and see.
 
The recently announced six West 737s that are being returned early will have to be pulled off some current routes, and Vegas could easily be heavily affected. Furthermore, another six West 737s will be early returned next year.

Imagine how many legs each of those 737s does in a day.

The only mentioned growth this year for PHX is two A321s due in November.
 
Not surprising. Merger or not, with oil at $120 per barrel, low yield flights are not worth it. I don't think the company would announce anything just yet. They probably don't want to see a drop off in summer bookings. Also with CLT gaining flights, and a system wide capity cut of 2%, you have to wonder where that was coming from. I personally don't think this announcement would have anything to do with the potential merger. Not to offend any AWA workers, but this needed to happen. Most airbus flying I would think would be transfered to PHX. The 737s are probably some of the increased airplanes that are supposed to leave the fleet later this year.
 
I get it now....that song by Johnny Cash. It's a list of the places USAir has pulled out of over the years.
 
All of this coupled with the fact that Las Vegas is HURTING. Just walk around some of the casino's. They are dead. You KNOW it's bad when you go over to the Rio and both the Voodoo lounge AND Club Rio are closed. People on majority pay lower fares there and fuel is sky high. Put the planes somewhere else.
 
Those 737s do alot of LAS-SFO shuffle...sometimes referred to as the Oriental express and the LAS-LAX flights aka Japanese Junket...some parings have up to 4 or 5legs back and forth on what we call the Ghetto jet!
 
They say, that things happen for a reason. For LCC I'm beginning to believe why !
Actually, FORGET that LCC Crap, you easties have, and will always be US Air to me.

This post will sound ANTI-West, but it's not meant to be !!!
You folks will always be AW to me !

NOW, that EAST will not be merging with AA, or CO, OR NW, then the time is NOW to shape your EAST destiny.
And, I see signs that you are doing it already.

LAS is failing,........well that effects WEST, more than EAST

IMHO the BIGGEST most POSITIVE thing EAST just did, is that the poilots have their own union !!!

LCC BOD's will WAKE ...T F U..SOON and realize that these are the things that will keep EAST going as a smaller legacy, or as an ATTRACTIVE addition to a CO, or AA, or maybe a DL..down the road;

1. the shuttle
2. PHL..O+D..+ International
3. CLT

All of those things are EAST products.

I honestly believe that Parkers days are numbered(believe it or not)

IF THE lcc bod'S are Smart, THEY WILL JETTISON West AND PARKER, and Combine you guy/gals with someone like Frontier.

And as far as UAL is concerned,.............US Air needs to NOT hook up with UAL a this point, take a "wait and see" stance for the time being, and plan to revamp a smaller company that IS doing things right, especially in the 3 area's that I outlined.

Good Luck
 
I just got back from being in LAS the last couple of days (yes, I flew in Kettle Klass on US). For only 100ish flights/day, why does US need all the gates it has? Are the lease contracts that long and rigid that Tempe has to keep them? Seems like another PIT scenario in the making to me... except that WN is already entrenched in the market.
 
I just got back from being in LAS the last couple of days (yes, I flew in Kettle Klass on US). For only 100ish flights/day, why does US need all the gates it has? Are the lease contracts that long and rigid that Tempe has to keep them? Seems like another PIT scenario in the making to me... except that WN is already entrenched in the market.
Pretty sure that the county owns most if not all of the gates in LAS. That's why WN started sneaking over to the B concourse a few years ago, HP had no choice but to let them. Sad to see my former stomping grounds go down the tubes... :(
 
Not surprising. Merger or not, with oil at $120 per barrel, low yield flights are not worth it. I don't think the company would announce anything just yet. They probably don't want to see a drop off in summer bookings. Also with CLT gaining flights, and a system wide capity cut of 2%, you have to wonder where that was coming from. I personally don't think this announcement would have anything to do with the potential merger. Not to offend any AWA workers, but this needed to happen. Most airbus flying I would think would be transfered to PHX. The 737s are probably some of the increased airplanes that are supposed to leave the fleet later this year.

When was Vegas ever a low yield route?

They were always taking volunteers when I non-reved out of there many times,often having to go

through LAX to get back into PIT.
 
When was Vegas ever a low yield route?

They were always taking volunteers when I non-reved out of there many times,often having to go

through LAX to get back into PIT.
What does that have to do with YIELDS? Bumped pax LOWERS the yield, so if the yield is already low (low ticket prices in order to compete, free tickets, frequent flyer tickets, etc), this just makes it WORSE. It's the same in Florida. Full planes, can't make money due to all the competition, free tickets, etc.
 
When was Vegas ever a low yield route?

They were always taking volunteers when I non-reved out of there many times,often having to go

through LAX to get back into PIT.

A full aircraft does NOT necessarily equal a high yield flight. It depends on what kind of fares are onboard.
 
When was Vegas ever a low yield route?

They were always taking volunteers when I non-reved out of there many times,often having to go

through LAX to get back into PIT.

Yield have nothing to do with load factor. I can fill airplanes all day and night out of LAS for $19 a seat and guarantee a 100% load factor at that fare. But the yield would be quite a large negative number.
 

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