As the #4 in the region (AA, CO, & DL beat UA solidly), it might be wise for UA to pull out of the region and allow Star partner Varig to carry the weight here. Save money!
Very true flyhigh. I think any big station closings would start in south america.
I really hope they can hang on to some service to maintain a foothold and be in a position to expand when they emerge and the glorious days of prosperity returns to the industry.
While UA's service to Latin America has been limited, ever since it began in 1991, I urge them to keep it. It strength has always been the long haul to deep south america. CCS was always served 1x from MIA and until 1999/2000 1x from JFK. AA serves CCS from MIA four or five times daily. UA really was a niche player.
EZE was served much more competitively from ORD, JFK and MIA. GRU is well from all three. GRU, even if it remains the only UA latin city, should continue to be served from UA hubs. IAD and ORD to GRU should remain linked to UA's world. Let AA and the others duke it out from MIA to GRU. GRU is the single most important city in Latin America by a long shot. Let UA fly to GRU and connect with Varig to other deep latin cities.
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On 1/14/2003 841 AM JFK777 wrote:
Let AA and the others duke it out from MIA to GRU. GRU is the single most important city in Latin America by a long shot. Let UA fly to GRU and connect with Varig to other deep latin cities.
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The UA MIA-GRU service is very important to Star, because it provides double-daily service on Star Alliance, one on Varig and one on United. Sao Paulo is the biggest market between Miami and South America, and it allows RG to have competitive double-daily service. With UAL pulling out of the non-stop MIA-GIG market, Varig will be returning frequencies to 6x a week this summer.
Assuming things get better for UAL, and only if they get better, I do think you will see a rebuild up of LatAm from MIA in the mid-2000s, especially as UAL's new MIA terminal is completed, as it is well underway.
You are absolutely right, I want UA to maintain MIA-GRU SERVICE but I was only talking about the worst case where they give up miami to south america service. I am all for UA staying at miami in its prsent form. I wish they flew to other places like MIA-LHR.
I think that it's unlikely that UA will drop all of its South American service unless things go really badly in the bankruptcy proceedings. Indeed, with the recent announcements that it was discontinuing flights to CCS, SCL, MXP, DUS and AKL, UA clearly hasn't been reluctant to drop its service if it thought that the markets couldn't be made profitable in the near future.
As to the U.S. departure points for United's South American flights, I think that we will see more nonstop service from the carrier's hubs, especially IAD and ORD (and perhaps even LAX at some point), while the MIA nonstop service will basically remain static with the two primary and historically very profitable markets of GRU and EZE, with the possibility of GIG nonstops returning if traffic improves again.
It will also be interesting to see how the new IAD-GRU/EZE nonstops perform. If they do well, it might encourage UA to add some other nonstop destinations from IAD. For instance, the local Washington (all 3 airports)-LIM market is substantially larger than either the Washington-GRU or Washington-EZE local markets where nonstop service now exists, with most Washington-LIM traffic currently connecting via MIA and, to a much lesser extent, ATL. The ability of UA to flow traffic from the Northeast and Upper Midwest (and even a few European cities) through its IAD hub, combined with some fairly decent-sized local Washington markets, could make IAD a major gateway (after MIA and JFK, of course) to South America. JMHO.
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On 1/14/2003 12:25:22 PM Rob wrote:
MAH4546, MIA-GRU is the biggest South American market? I had thought MIA-CCS was. Sr. Chávez must have really wrecked the place.
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A year ago that was the case. 14 daily flights on six airline. Now it is 7 dailies on three airlines. Now Caracas is third, after Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.
I am sure UA would love to get thier hands on MIA-LHR. It's one of the few profitable markets out there. In October 2002 75,000 people flew between Miami and London (only slightly less than between San Fran and London; and that is before AA added the 2nd frequency), and October is the slowest month of the year. However, UA does not have the authority and getting it would be a hard process. bmi, however, does have MIA-LHR authority, and have stated from Day One thier intention to start MIA-LHR whenever they can.