MIA new focus city...

[RAG]

USAirways is moving into the new star allience terminal in October with its own Immigration facilitiy. Rumor has it that MIA will become our next focuse city being feed by the star allience carriers. MIA is trying to get a LCC to set up an operation in MIA to help lower operation costs by spreading the cost over more departures (its on there web site) Could D.P. be looking to give AA some compatition in MIA?

 

[BoeingBoy]

The MIA staff tells me that we'll only have 2 gates - don't know if that's true or if it could change. As for AA, seems like we tried a S. Fla focus city that was supposed to put a crimp on AA.

Jim

 

[lovinglcc]

Sounds like FLL version 2.0

 

[ClueByFour]

Spirit pretty much ended the FLL experiment, and AA would end it if tried at MIA.

That dog won't hunt.

 

[Flying Titan]

Was it Spirit that was the real downfall of the US experiment at FLL? How? (Not a slam, but I hadn't heard that perspective before.)

I thought it was the ops problems at the airport itself (delays and customs issues) and the lack of appropriate feed from the rest of the US network. US also seemed too impatient to let it gain any real traction with passengers. Of course, that may be understandable given the company's lack of cash at the time.

 

[flyingcat]

Spirit grew more after US pulled the plug especially since Ben B. who masterminded the FLL esperiment at US left. He got a new job at Spirit to continue his FLL dream.

Unfortunately they are still not profitable.

Ben B. insists that it will work.

 

[Travelpro72]

Well the airport has basically one runway that the big jets use. When US threw all those new flights into FLL almost overnight it was a nightmare. I did a few trips with turns through there or stops on the way to an island turn. There were a/c and rj's everywhere. We waited for gates. On top of that it is not set up for all that int'l traffic. Customs simply could not handle it. There was also no room for a club or at least no cash to make one at the time. I think it was dont at a bad time. That airport is really delay prone as it is.

 

[usairways85]

If a focus city in FLL never lived up to its full potential a focus city in MIA will never get off the ground either, AA will make sure of it.

 

[ALCARLOS]

Spirit pretty much ended the FLL experiment, and AA would end it if tried at MIA.

That dog won't hunt.

If just the two gates were fully utalized, would it cause an AA reaction?

 

[BoeingBoy]

Anyone chime in and point out errors cause I'm just thinking out loud here....

Could we possibly pick up incremental MIA traffic from those who use AA solely because of the simplicity - single ticketing, same terminal connections, etc - particularly those coming from Latin/South America. Once in the new *A terminal, we can offer that with our *A partners who these folks might not have flown because of the "hassle factor" at the U.S. gateway.

That doesn't make a "focus city", but more passengers is good.

Jim

 

[Travelpro72]

Just curious but because MIA is an American Airlines hub, shall no other airline go in there and challenge them? Are they really that hard to compete with? I know they are agressive but we are not the same US being ran by the wacko's of the past. If HP held their own against WN out west what makes someone think we couldn't hold our own in MIA with *alliance on our side against American? It would make for good competition.

 

[BoeingBoy]

AA's $4 Billion in available cash might have something to do with it.

On another note, there was an article (bottom of pg 3) at theStreet.com today that mentioned MIA costs $30 per passenger. Since the article was about DL's international expansion and quoted a DL source on the cost, it's unclear whether that is DL's cost per passenger or the average.

Jim

 

[Travelpro72]

Well if thats the case, I don't see it profitable for anyone to go there. Let them have it. Thats an insane amount of cash to move a passenger through there. WOW!

 

[legacy-to-LCC]

could varig's all but certain demise be a part of this equation? they have a considerable presence at mia, i believe?

 

[jimntx]

Also guys, remember that a goodly bit of the attraction for AA in MIA is our flights to Europe from MIA. We get a lot of South America to Europe connecting business.

And, I'm not trying to start something, but has US Airways become a true low cost carrier yet? Low ticket prices is not the same thing as low costs. If you are not low cost, then trying to undersell us at MIA will mean losing money--and despite what some of your past inept management liked to think, you can't make up the loss with volume.

And, yes we have over 4 Billion in cash right now. The main purpose for that money is to use it to protect hubs. Since we made an operating profit in 1st quarter (yeah, I know that's not the same thing as a net profit 🙁 ), it means that we would burn through the $4 billion slower than otherwise.

If we don't need it to protect a hub, AND, someone (read DL or NW) were to go under, there would be a lot of lovely cash available to take over suddenly underserved routes. I'm not saying that I think either airline will go under (which I don't), just that if it happens we would have the cash to take advantage of the situation.