Shuttle America Drops Ttn-bed Again

[tadjr]

Article


Nothing like a little notice. But I guess it wasnt a big surprise. Anyone know how Boston-Maine is doing on this route?

 

[Light Years]

I heard that Boston Maine only has one or two passengers a day. The TTN-BED service complemented PHL-BOS as it was essentially the same route but without the hassles.

Didnt the TTN-PIT service end too? So I guess we can take another two cities off the map in Attache. I wonder would PHL-BED and BOS-TTN work?

 

[Hope777]

PHL-BED did Poorly at best. When U signed S5 as an Express carrier, they added BED-PHL to their Schedule. As far as BOS-TTN, that route was the biggest money maker Eastwind had. The 737-200 and then the 737-700 were often full.

 

[Light Years]

Apparently Indy Air was looking at Trenton. The facility is not very big, which is probably why Southwest didnt bother with it. Its really smack in the middle of Philly and Newark, but if theres enough O&D from the Boston area to make money maybe US should put an RJ on it? I guess they worry about siphoning traffic away from BOS-PHL, which I've been told is one of US Airways best routes.

So is Shuttle America completely gone from the USX system soon or no? I've seen some United Express-looking Saabs at the E terminal in PIT.

 

[funguy2]

Back in the days when PHL-BOS was a great route for US Airways, that meant that this route has faily high fares. Thus, a slight premium could be attained for a commuter operation on BED-TTN and still cover the costs of operating the flight, and appear to be reasonable.

However, now that we have AirTran on PHL-BOS, Southwest on PHL-PVD/MHT, and GoFares, I am sure the yield on BED-TTN was had declined dramatically, and when combined with the relatively higher CASM of a turboprop, very quickly turns into a situaiton of very high unsustainable loses.

I cannot think of many markets where turbo-props compete successfully with LCC's. Even considering the convenience factor.

I am making up these numbers, but... If a walk-up PHL-BOS used to be $500, and walk-up DEN-TTN was $600, that was probably sustainable. Now, walk-up PHX-BOS is in the range of $100 or less, and well, that means BED-TTN must come down, however, the expenses do not, and there is no "hub traffic" trick that can be pulled (substituing higher yield connections for ultra-low yield locals).

This is not surprising... The only surprise is the amount of time between the announcement and the service cancelation (i.e. none).