To ï¬￾nd proï¬￾t, carrier plans to lose more Vegas flights

[john john]

Parker says for the industry and his airline to make money, the business model has to change.
Las Vegas was an easy target because its leisure market position wasn’t as profitable as business travel markets such as Philadelphia. Today US Airways has about half the flights it once had in Las Vegas “Vegas was one of the hardest hit (destinations) in the system,â€￾ said Robert Isom, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “But any flights that we pulled were money losers.â€￾ The airline no longer refers to Las Vegas as one of its primary destinations,
“The majority of the employees that left were part-time workers just because of the nature of our operation there,â€￾ Paladini said. “A lot of those folks were working full time at hotels and part time with us to get the flying benefits.â€￾
Because many workers had other Las Vegas jobs, few accepted transfers.
Paladini is a seasoned slasher
No mention of the full timers that had to go part-time
Next round of cuts will be full timers(non CSS) seen it all before
What is USAirways business model?

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/0...-vegas-flights/

 

[vantheman63]

Wait! What about fixing the product?!?!?

Oh....never mind...all we VFFers and high yield customers want it to get there on time with our luggage...we love plastic in F, inconsistent service....and food? We don't care for or need any stinkin' food! We only pay rock bottom fares! I forgot...

Never mind...carry on....shrinking to profitability has always been a viable busines model....wait!....

Never mind....

 

[LCC_#1]

<singing>"The wheels on the plane go round and round, round and round, round and round!"

 

[Furloughd4now]

This being the case, why do we still have a pilot and FA base there? I know the FAs there get no lines and that it is strictly a reserve base, those there being utilized rarely, if at all.

 

[Travelpro72]

This being the case, why do we still have a pilot and FA base there? I know the FAs there get no lines and that it is strictly a reserve base, those there being utilized rarely, if at all.

Ohhhhhh never fear. All one has to do is look no further than Pittsburgh to see what those in LAS have to look forward to. Tempe will leave no stone unturned. Cutting is what they do BEST. Just wait. I hate to see bases close or the continual direction of US but it's history repeating itself.

 

[nycbusdriver]

...Las Vegas was an easy target because its leisure market position wasn’t as profitable as business travel markets such as Philadelphia. Today US Airways has about half the flights it once had in Las Vegas “Vegas was one of the hardest hit (destinations) in the system,â€￾ said Robert Isom, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “But any flights that we pulled were money losers.â€￾ The airline no longer refers to Las Vegas as one of its primary destinations,

What has SWA done in LAS? Have they decreased at all? Remained the same? Increased with USAirways pullout?

 

[Travelpro72]

I don't know about anyone else but when I think of WN I pretty much vision talent, innovation and basically able to think outside the box. They go against a lot of what a "legacy" airline does. See where I'm going here?

 

[hp_fa]

This being the case, why do we still have a pilot and FA base there? I know the FAs there get no lines and that it is strictly a reserve base, those there being utilized rarely, if at all.

The base was there primarilly to cover the old, and large, late night bank out of LAS so that timed-out, ill or injured FA's would not cause a late night flight to be canceled for lack of legal crew. The pilot base was similar but a bit different. The bottom line was that planes had to be at their destinations to cover early morning flights back to LAS or to PHX.

West also had significant numbers of crew deadheading routinely between PHX and LAS. PHX based crews, both reserves and lineholders, often were deadheading up to LAS between 7-9 PM and there had been a flight back from LAS between 1-2 AM. They were referred to as "crew haulers".

 

[ussnark]

What has SWA done in LAS? Have they decreased at all? Remained the same? Increased with USAirways pullout?

They have a pilot and flight attendant crew base there. Rumored to soon open the same in Denver.

 

[ussnark]

The base was there primarilly to cover the old, and large, late night bank out of LAS so that timed-out, ill or injured FA's would not cause a late night flight to be canceled for lack of legal crew. The pilot base was similar but a bit different. The bottom line was that planes had to be at their destinations to cover early morning flights back to LAS or to PHX.

Oh, and, SWA does not do red-eyes, apparently leaving that marginally "profitable niche" to US.

 

[Travelpro72]

So are there reservers or whatever still sitting in LAS when there is no longer a huge night push? If so why and for how long?

 

[does this plane go to paris]

What has SWA done in LAS? Have they decreased at all? Remained the same? Increased with USAirways pullout?

In the past 18 month, WN has opened an F/A and Pilot's base. The flight activity went as high as 242 flights a day but has pared down to around 230 flights a day. The interesting thing though has been the connecting walkway and the repositioning of the security lanes for WN.

Previously, WN was at the end of the ticket counter, so folks had to back track, go past Baggage Claim and take a tram to the gates. Customers now have a short walk and an escalator ride to security and the choice of B or C gates.

LAS continues to build the new E terminal and that supposedly has it's own ticket counter, Baggage Claim and ticket counters. Rumors abound as to who will go out there, but the operation is too small for WN. When the economy rebounds and WN has full access to both C and B gates, WN could easily be in the 350-400 flights a day.

 

[UPNAWAY]

Wait! What about fixing the product?!?!?

You must not have been paying attention. The product is much improved.
Improved OTP, greatly Improved Bag handling. Improved Aircraft cleanliness and new interiors. Lots of new ramp equipment. Improved operations recovery efforts.
Testing two new IFE systems and a new VP of in-flight that I am sure will make some enhancements to the in flight experience. Repealed two unpopular changes, (the mileage bonus and charging for coach beverages). That is a lot of improvement just in the last year; let’s see what this year brings.

 

[Black Magic]

Looks like US is handing Las Vegas on platter to SWA. It's like all US knows how to do is cut flights until there is not even an airline. Question though...If US ever tries to add flights back to LAS do they lose the gates and the airport tells them "sorry you pulled out" or?

 

[OTslave]

You must not have been paying attention. The product is much improved.
Improved OTP, greatly Improved Bag handling. Improved Aircraft cleanliness and new interiors. Lots of new ramp equipment. Improved operations recovery efforts.
Testing two new IFE systems and a new VP of in-flight that I am sure will make some enhancements to the in flight experience. Repealed two unpopular changes, (the mileage bonus and charging for coach beverages). That is a lot of improvement just in the last year; let’s see what this year brings.

No one will deny that changes have been made. Yet, what I see as a former employee is a lack of clear cut direction. What is this company? Is it a low cost carrier or a full service airline? Can it be both? It probably could be both if it decided what routes it would operate as a low cost carrier and which as a full service airline.

The question that comes to mind is - Is this a PSA acquistion all over again? PSA was merged into US Air for the purpose of west coast operations. In a very short period of time it was all gone. So if HP (bought or merged, whichever you prefer) US Airways, why do we have a shrinking violet in the new US Airways? Is this another retreat east. If that's the case why go through the merger in the first place. You may have just let one or both die and then there would be less seats in the marketplace.

I don't know how familiar you are with the former US operations at LGA prior to 9/11. The airline has a unit terminal all by itself that has 20 jetway equipped gates. There were at one point 130+ mainline departures per day and many destinations. (Many of the former destinations are now Express) Today mainline destinations are DCA, BOS, CLT and PIT (Some island flights on weekends). PIT mainline flights have dwindled as well. I am not a marketing genius but I find it very hard to believe that with all the stations on the US map, that US cannot increase mainline flying out of all places New York. Every business person in the world flies to New York. Just about every other carrier brought up mainline flying up to pre 9/11 levels. Not US.

So while I respect your opinion; in my opinion there is something very wrong when a company is constantly retreating from it's competitors. The costs should be well in line now. They have taken a lot from the employees and now from customers.