South America

[gaucho99]

This was posted in another thread y PHLFA88:

I Heard ffrom the grape vine to look for 2 South Amercian flts from CLT in the fall of next year with 330-200 A/C..

Anybody care to speculate which cities this might be? I assume if we are using a 330-200 it would be deep South America as in Brazil and or Argentina.

 

[PHL]

I thought only 3 332's were coming in 2009. 2 are needed for TLV. 2 more would be needed to run daily service to places like EZE...

 

[gaucho99]

I thought only 3 332's were coming in 2009. 2 are needed for TLV. 2 more would be needed to run daily service to places like EZE...

Of hand, I'm not sure of the number of new 332's we are getting but it would take two to operate clt-eze daily service. Maybe they can use 767's instead.

 

[Crzipilot]

Well if you take the word of Mgmt, last year they were asked at a crew news why they don't look at S.America. The answer was, there weren't any routes that looked good etc... Maybe they finally actually looked at it? I dunno.

 

[zethya]

There are 5 scheduled 332 deliveres for 2009:
2 in May (TLV)
1 in Sept
1 in Nov
1 in Dec
These will be followed by either 5 or 6 more in 2010.
The 3 in Fall 2009 could be used for South America. The US 767s could likely do CLT-EZE, but not CLT-GIG (Rio) without restrictions. It's reasonable to assume that the ATH 767 will be replaced with a 332 in either Fall of 2009 if the route becomes year round, or in late Spring 2010 if seasonal. Personally, I can't see US doing CLT-EZE or CLT-GIG - both very risky long haul routes from anywhere but NYC or DL's giant ATL based network. If credible, my bet is that the CLT talk is regarding closer in South America not requiring the 332 and may in fact have been an overly zealous interpretation of the recent DOT extension of the US authority to code share and optionally serve EZE (Argentina) and MVD (Uruguay). This extension has been renewed annually for at least the last 5 years and does not specify a U.S. origin. 332 expansion will probably focus on Asia or maybe even a stab at a PHX-Europe route in 2010. Also, if they can't get out of China, they will need to use 3-332s (a very Bad move IMO), if they can't find any 340-300s for that Daily - year round route starting in Spring 2010. If they eventually try EZE or MVD, my bet is it will be from PHL to pickup the NYC/northern NJ potential. It's not very probable these 2 routes would ever be long term successful without significant premium traffic and supportive cargo.

 

[bigbusboy]

Zethya, you're spot on. Although, agents in LHR are saying PHX/LHR will start sometime next year. We will see.

 

[AlleghenyVista]

South America will not make any money for US, either will PHX-LHR. A330-200's need to be placed on new routes like PHL-SVO,PHL-DKR-JNB, and year round PHL-ATH service. Only time will tell.

 

[gaucho99]

At the 3rd quarter earnings Q and A, someone asked about expansion into Asia, notably Tokyo. The answer was that our hubs are better positioned for Europe and South America rather than Asia. So, my guess would be to look for South America first.

 

[jcw]

At the 3rd quarter earnings Q and A, someone asked about expansion into Asia, notably Tokyo. The answer was that our hubs are better positioned for Europe and South America rather than Asia. So, my guess would be to look for South America first.

That's a shame on the Asia comments. Look at all the flights from DC and NY to Asia. At least one flight to NRT should be done from PHL.

 

[JFK777]

why would USair fly to Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo or Rio ? Use A320 and 757 to places closer to CLT, leave the A330's for Europe.

 

[FlightChic]

I would love for US to begin service to South American. You all can have Europe. Been there, done that so many times, both in personal travels and working TA trips.

I love South America!!! I would be ETBing those trips like crazy and doing anything I could to get those trips to South America! I'm not sure how lucrative it would be and I'm not sure if we can even get them because of air restrictions but if we could I would be so happy! I prefer the Spanish-speaking countries of South America but I will take Brazil (excuse me Brasil). I have a feeling that is where we would start.

 

[ChockJockey]

Zethya, you're spot on. Although, agents in LHR are saying PHX/LHR will start sometime next year. We will see.

I would imagine that this is largely contingent on what BA does with its non-stop PHX/LHR route, if anything. Currently, it's the only widebody aircraft being serviced at Terminal 4.

 

[JetguyCLT]

US Airways does not have the space for anymore widebody aircraft in CLT. We only have 11 gates that we can use on the D Concourse. D4 is used by express and D6 is used by JetBlue. LH occupies D12 for a few hours each day. The only other widebody gates are D3, which blocks out D5 for any other type of aircraft, D11, and D12. D2 could be used for a B767 but would block out D1 and same goes for D10, which would block out D8. Space is tight in CLT, just look at the Saturday schedule with all the carribean arrivals. Plus begining 1/3 on saturday's there will be 2 flights to MEX and SJO daily. Whoever disigned the International Terminal in CLT did it as a quick fix.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Whoever disigned the International Terminal in CLT did it as a quick fix.

Part of the problem, maybe the major part, is the close proximity to rwy 18L/36R and it's parallel taxiway. They couldn't extend D-con any further to the east and putting a N-S oriented extension would interfere with the taxiway to the south or the E-con to the north (basically offsetting the gates gained on the extension with gates lost in the corner created).

Plus I believe that D-con was designed and built when we had a lot less international out of CLT.

Jim

 

[LD3]

US Airways does not have the space for anymore widebody aircraft in CLT. We only have 11 gates that we can use on the D Concourse. D4 is used by express and D6 is used by JetBlue. LH occupies D12 for a few hours each day. The only other widebody gates are D3, which blocks out D5 for any other type of aircraft, D11, and D12. D2 could be used for a B767 but would block out D1 and same goes for D10, which would block out D8. Space is tight in CLT, just look at the Saturday schedule with all the carribean arrivals. Plus begining 1/3 on saturday's there will be 2 flights to MEX and SJO daily. Whoever disigned the International Terminal in CLT did it as a quick fix.

Probably why the airport is making a big push for the new intl concourse...although kind of risky putting all your eggs in one basket due to one airline..