Pit hub to IND ?

hack73

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Jan 17, 2003
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www.usaviation.com
The rumormill on the line in PIT tonight is that the PIT hub will be moved to IND.After the United mess to pull their maintenance operation is cleared,US Air will move in.The county controller in PIT seems to be taking a hardline with U over concessions on rent.All he has to do is ask the employees,Siegel would screw his own mother if he had to!
 
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On 4/1/2003 9:42:14 PM hack73 wrote:

The rumormill on the line in PIT tonight is that the PIT hub will be moved to IND.After the United mess to pull their maintenance operation is cleared,US Air will move in.The county controller in PIT seems to be taking a hardline with U over concessions on rent.All he has to do is ask the employees,Siegel would screw his own mother if he had to!

It would give US a more centrally located hub in the country, moving more Westerly but how would the weather compare for instance, and how are the facilities there?
 
A. You don''t just pick up and move a hub.

B. IND would be a disaster for U. It is a low-yielding market dominated by a low-fare carrier (ATA) and has a strong presence by the king of low-fare carriers (LUV).
 
UAL does not have a HUB at IND... they have a maintenance base. There is a big difference. UAL is closing its maintanance base and there is a possibility that U may be looking to take over that facility if conditions are favorable (i.e., how state-of-the-art is it; will there be a large investment necessary to retrofit the facility to accommodate the U fleet; IND city and Indiana state taxes; can ALL or substantial portions of maintenace ops be moved to this single facility thereby reducing costs assoicated with maintaining multiple facilities.)

I don''t envision a hub at IND because there is insufficient gate space, insufficient O&D revenue potential, and intense low-cost competition from ATA, which is headquartered at IND.

I have said on other posts, however, that I see a possibility (if not a probability) that U is looking at picking up DEN if UAL dumps it or pulls back ops (which the board has directed UAL management to investigate). U may also look at aquiring STL from AA, since there are rumors that AA is considering divesting itself of that facility.

Time will tell, I guess.
 
I would think an STL hub would be more likely than IND. Should UAL go under, AA wouldn''t need STL since ORD would be wide open...therefore they would look to sell it off quickly - U has always wanted STL as a hub.Who knows....however, I need to be careful so I don''t initiate discussion on the next item - the wacky corporate transaction (tm Me). :)
 
DCAFLYER''s rumours always seem more plausible than other people''s rumours. Mind you I''m just fanning the flames with rank speculation.... because I have no idea.

However, I have noticed something.... in the longer run, the stuff that makes most sense (like what DCAFlyer says) is more likely to happen anyway, regardless of what people attempt to do or say they are going to attempt to do or are planning to look into doing in the shorter term.

What''s also interesting is the tendency for simple ideas to be attacked here, simply because they are expressed. Surely, if 5000 ideas are posted on a bulletin board, then maybe 1 of those will turn out to be a plausible, independent idea that might have some influence, somewhere.
 
Indy has a new mid-field terminal that''s
still in the planning stages from what I understand.

Plans also call for an additional rwy.

Indianapolis is the 12th largest city in the U.S.,
over 800,000,the metro region has about 1.5 million.

Candidate for a hub? maybe...
 
Hey now... Granted IND is not the center of the cultural universe (but that is changing).. but it does have a lot to offer. There are three races a year at IMS (all but 3 cart teams and all IRL teams are based here), the biggest drag car race of the season is held here, the NCAA is headquartered here with the final four here almost every 4 or 5 years, the largest childrens museum in the world, three profesional sports teams and two minor league teams, and river boats within reasonable driving distance. IND also has a very large convention business, there are two or three conventions every week and the only cities with larger convention centers are Chicago and Los Angeles. The cost of living here is extremely low compared with the rest of the country as well. It's 90mins by car from ORD, SDF, and CVG. CVG is actually a smaller city but DL seems to do fine there. The new midfield terminal at IND is expandable and even with the current terminal US has an entire spoke that they only use 3 or 4 gates of.

As for competition, LUV is about it, and even with that you can only fly to Texas, Arizona, Baltimore, or once a day to LAX. ATA is headquartered here but has no hub, their hub is MDW. The only ATA mainline flights out of here are to LAS and the occassional flight to Mexico and Florida, all their other jet flights are charters for the military or sports teams from here.. well they have their travel club too.

STL would make more sense than IND or PIT, however IND already has the mntc base that UA is closing this month and it is not exactly a small operation. With UA pulling out of here the city and state have gone on record saying they will do anything in the way of taxes and loans that they can to bring another carrier in.. and lets not forget that at one time IND was a "mini hub" for US and was the dominant carrier here until just last summer. Also with Chatauqua based here it would make a good move for regional connectors. There is also a mothballed res center right next door (still US owned and full of furniture and equipment today)and UA had a res center in their facility that closed last year.

I realize that alot of rumours, and I mean alot, on this board are bogus and wild speculation. However given the state of things, I would put this one in the "hmmm that is possible" category and not completely blow it off just yet.

Finally.... don't make assumptions about other cities or compare them to places like Utica (never been, but haven't had a reason to yet)... you wouldn't like someone dawgin on your hometown :)
 
I think that Bradly71 hit on two of the negatives for IND - Southwest and ATA. Sure they may only have a few flights out of there, but their presence wrecks the fare pricing to every city that they serve.