Pvd-phl

[weatherman]

Has anyone worked PVD-PHL? How is it doing? Seems to be doing well Fri and Sun, but loads the rest of the week seem to be weak. Is this the case? With the addition of 2 US flights and 5 SW flights the market seems a bit saturated. Currently 12 daily flights.

 

[USFlyer]

Has anyone worked PVD-PHL? How is it doing? Seems to be doing well Fri and Sun, but loads the rest of the week seem to be weak. Is this the case? With the addition of 2 US flights and 5 SW flights the market seems a bit saturated. Currently 12 daily flights.

The market is saturated. How much demand, regardless of fares, does PHL-PVD really generate? That being said, remember US's flights also carry a high percentage of connecting traffic. I'm assuming the same for WN though not to the same degree.

 

[Tanker]

I talked with a PVD Ops person a couple of weeks ago. She said that except for 1 flight in the 1st week (which had 49 pax) all of the flights have over 100 pax, with many being full. Her only complaint was not that the flights were doing bad, but they seemed to have more delays than other flights, even more than BWI.

 

[weatherman]

Tanker,

Thanks for the update. Wow 100 a flight is better than I was expecting. I assume they are discounting more seats than usual on these flights as they seem wide open everyday. It will be interesting the see how much additional traffic has been generated since SW entered the market.

 

[BoeingBoy]

"but they seemed to have more delays than other flights, even more than BWI"

Or, as we who have PHL as the "Crown Jewel" of our airline call it, the Philly Phactor.

Jim

 

[ramper_in_las]

all i know is when 777 comes into LAS it is bulked out top and bottom!!!

 

[coolflyingfool]

I don't think SWA has any B777s. Perhaps that bin door hit you on the head.

 

[sfb]

I don't think SWA has any B777s. Perhaps that bin door hit you on the head.

Mmmm I would imagine that ramper's talking about WN flight 777 which operates PVD-PHL-LAS-SAN.

 

[mweiss]

That's someone with a sense of humor...having flight 777 go to LAS.

 

[KCFlyer]

Mmmm I would imagine that ramper's talking about WN flight 777 which operates PVD-PHL-LAS-SAN.

Where do you see that? I thought the same thing, but I cannot find any 777 anywhere in Southwest's system.

 

[firstamendment]

Everything is full...100%...everything is great...everything is perfect..ontime everyday..never a complaint...PERFECT!!!!!!!! Everyone loves us...We can do no wrong!!

 

[firstamendment]

Oh, and we are able to go thru those east coast afternoon and evening thunderstorms and PHL lets us go ahead of the other airlines on the taxiway. We are ALWAYS #1 or #2 for departure. PHL is an easy airport...no, the easiest airport to fly out of. They LUV us here.

 

[sfb]

Of course, I was looking at an old schedule. Correction: "WN flight 777 which operated PVD-PHL-LAS-SAN." The flight number has changed in the new schedule.

 

[KCFlyer]

Everything is full...100%...everything is great...everything is perfect..ontime everyday..never a complaint...PERFECT!!!!!!!! Everyone loves us...We can do no wrong!!

You know firstammendment - I know several LUV employees, and very few of them feel that they can "do no wrong". US has had a stranglehold on PHL for a lot of years - they could have made it really difficult for LUV to ever gain a foothold there. But when your company charges $900 for a 200 mile flight right up until the day LUV starts service, is it any wonder that your local press might make it seem like LUV can do no wrong? Had US made more of an effort to insure loyalty to the airline prior to ANY low fare carrier entering the market, you all might be grinning smugly as the SWA jets taxi past damn near empty.

SWA's systemwide load factor is something like 75%, so no, not every flight is pulling away with every seat filled. The difference is that with SWA's pricing structure, there are only about 5 fare levels to any market out of PHL. The lowest bucket is right at (maybe just slightly below) their costs per seat mile. Those seats are pretty limited. The rest of them all make the company a profit. US, in their attempts to "beat" SWA on price, is sending out plane after plane that may well have MORE seats filled, but at fares that still don't come close to covering their costs.

It's easy to resent SWA and their reception to the PHL market, but you might want to look over to your headquarters and ask them why they didn't do anything to try and blunt the impact of SWA or Airtran at PHL well BEFORE they ever considered entering the market.

 

[BoeingBoy]

KC,

You mean you didn't buy the company line at U about "just giving the passengers what they have been asking for" when they announced GoFares....

Kidding aside, you make so much sense it's scary.

Jim