Service to Ireland article

There is another small article in the paper version that I could not find on the web that might be of interest.


Airline Mulls Service Boost

SHANNON, Ireland----USAirways is considering adding service to other European cities next year including Barcelona, Spain; Birmingham, England; Brussels; and Glasgow Scotland.
The airline is considering seasonal service as a way to get started on the new routes.
"You could see a seasonal experiment next year" for one of those cities, Doug Leo, the airline''s vice president, international, said.
For the Caribbean and Latin America, the airline expects to add four or five routes by the end of this year or early next year. That''s in addition to the Charlotte, N.C.-Mexico City service scheduled to start Oct. 26.
 
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On 5/19/2003 6:48:36 PM Light Years wrote:

That would be great, but with what widebodies? A reduction to Germany due to the Lufthansa codeshare?

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I''d wondered if U''s 757''s could go over water, like CO''s, when U pulled out of BRU. I would have thought that BRU would have been a good market for PHL considering the ease of connections from DC. Better yet, have a 757 fly DCA-PHL-BRU. Well, before Bush gives up on NATO.... you know ''old Europe'' Maybe UA serves IAD-BRU.
 
The 757s are not ETOPS qualified and it would be too much of a capitol investment to do that. Plus the 757s are destined for high densitiy, low yield markets like LAS and PHX.
 
Not gonna happen, they are being modified starting in August to 8 FC and 185 or 193 in the back to be used on high demand low yield routes.
 
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On 5/20/2003 9:02:57 AM LavMan wrote:


The 757s are not ETOPS qualified and it would be too much of a capitol investment to do that. Plus the 757s are destined for high densitiy, low yield markets like LAS and PHX.

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I thought that Siegel had discussed placing some 757s into ETOPs service.

I could see them used on routes like PHL-LIS, PHL-GLA, PHL-DUB or SNN during the low season, PHL-BRU, BOS-LGW, PHL-BCN.

My understanding is that the required elements for ETOPs would be the addition of HF radios, an additional set of gyros, additional rafts, and the cert for the engines.

I did a seat map which has 16C and 158Y.

[url="http://www.geocities.com/eye_trade/futurefleetseats.html"]http://www.geocities.com/eye_trade/futurefleetseats.html[/URL]
 
I could see US flying some of those routes seasonal and maybe work their way up to year round. However, like mentioned the widebodies have to come from somewhere. I have 2 possibilities. One is that US discontinues all international service from PIT and uses the planes to fly from PHL. Or there will be no widebodies used on domestic runs with the exception of PHL and CLT to SJU. That means no 767''s on PHL and CLT-MCO, CLT-LAX, CLT and PHL-FLL, PHL and CLT-NAS, PHL-CUN flights. All those routes could be transfered to the reconfigured 757''s.
 
With US becomeing a member of * alliance, you may actually see a decrease in the number of European destinations served directly by US. More likely, you will see US keep their service to LGW and CDG, but increase their frequencies to FRA. From FRA (and MUC?) look for US to put their code on numerous LH flights. That''s what joining * is all about. US will become like NW - daily service to LGW and CDG and multiple daily flights to FRA (the equavalent of NW DTW/MSP/-AMS). And, there is nothing wrong with that, it makes sense economically and logically.
 
Just back from a roundtrip with USAirways to Dublin. Flight was full going PHL to DUB, and 80% full for the DUB - PHL leg. This route will be a success for USAirways... and I predict an annoucement soon that it will be continued as a year-round service rather than just seasonal. (What other use could they have for the B767's during the winter months anyways??)

I flew down from Boston and used the fantastic new International Terminal (just opened 2 weeks) at Philly for the connection to Dublin.