N965VJ
Veteran
LOLZ
Go back 20 years for all the other examples of how US never knew what it wanted to be when it grew up.
US Airways' plans shift in travel slump
- Thread starter USA320Pilot
- Start date
Go back 20 years for all the other examples of how US never knew what it wanted to be when it grew up.
Where do you suppose any profits come from? Obscenely high fares? That's not gonna last in the internet age. Free airplanes? Free gas? Sorry, but the hard working employees are the source of all profits and they are entitled to share in those profits.
Cutting capacity is a lousy way to wring profits from this industry. The amount of capacity cuts are proportional to costs. By cutting capacity, you simply open the market for new entrants with lower costs. Kirby ought to know better.
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
Not really. The capacity cuts are proportional to variable costs, but fixed costs get spread over fewer available seat miles. Although sometimes necessary short-term to respond to drops in traffic (like now or after 911), reducing capacity raises CASM which is not desirable in the longer term.
Jim
Maybe to those who came from PI (), but for this customer who did not begin to fly regularly until after US bought PI, my perception is colored differently. (Pun intended!)
Remember, SS255, I'm original AL. That acronym pre-dates the PI merger. Sadly that service reputation, and the "love to hate 'em" customer mindset -- with the exception of a few years during the World Class Global Carrier days -- has stuck around.
That sentiment isn't Tempe-specific. It's been systemic through Colodny, Schofield, Wolf, Gangwal, Siegel, Lakefield and Parker (did I miss anybody)?
From one arm chair CEO to others here what I would like to see at US and what I would think would help it's bottom line. US East was a very customer friendly and business man airline. They have in my opinion great assets in the East that go unused. The first thing they should do is re-brand, as much as I hate to say it but it would help alot. So here is my list:
1) Rebrand the entire airline, name, paint, interiors and the employees themselves. US East knows how to cater to those with money. They did it for many years and very well.
2) Continue to simplify the fleet, Domestic should go all 190 and Airbus. Keep the 190's focus on the shuttle, and shorter runs up and down the east and out on the west. Business men/women love options of many flights. Keep the 757's for the shorter/medium haul routes to Europe and the big air buses for larger cities and longer hauls. Get rid of all the 50 seaters and anything that was flown with 50 seaters should go to turbo props such as the Q-400 or ATR-72. Take all the 170/175's and Crj-700-900 and add a few First class seats to them. Everyone loves this at UA and DL.
3) The interiors are much nicer then before and look very clean. Continue to add PTV's at a small cost for the PAX and give the headsets for free like CAL. Put in internet and e-mailing options and power ports on all the domestic and international planes. Have cleaners at all hubs and out stations and have them scrubbed at the end of the day. People love clean planes! Rebrand the international product, the name Envoy is my favorite out of any airline, put the same seats on all the planes infront, and stuff the Envoy people with food and add more crew upfront for better service. This is what we do and they love it. In coach add PTV's to the 757's and update them on the airbuses. Add a concierge service to Envoy.
3) Update and upgrade the clubs in all the hubs and have Envoy clubs in PHL AND CLT. Anyone flying in Envoy should enjoy, premium snacks, free liquor, and free business centers.
4) Wipe out management and bring in a whole new crew, with open minds, fresh ideas, and great business ideas, such as a Gordon Bethune.
5) Figure out a way to make the pilot's happy and finally merge them. As for F/A's divide up Domestic and International inside each base and specially train each person for the new product offered. I PERSONALLY and please don't get mad or bicker at me guys, think the east contract is old and outdated. Open up the system to have the ability to fly as much or as little as you want but the least time you fly you lose perks, also like at CAL. Drop the pilot's me to and this will allow for your trips to be more productive and lessen reserve time overall.
6) Join in with CAL and UAL on the ATI and share profits over the Atlantic and assist each others passengers domestically. US has the presence both East and West to make itself a power house.
They also need to bring back the old Divvded Miles program and solicit back all of there old customers and overall UsAirways.com.
As for hubs I think they all need to make the agents happier and bring in new people who want to be there. Join in on gearing towards the business people BUT the lesiure people also. Add in features like we at CAL have such as the ability to have your boarding pass on your PDA and to get through security. These things really make life easier for the customer.
Philly-Focus on Europe and bringing in more routes and instead of seasonal routes cut them in the winter to 3-4 days a week. Make it so that Florida, the west coast, and the rest of the system can connect to Europe. Also making it so that the Carribean can connect to Europe and this will bring in lots of Holiday travelers from Europe.
LGA/DCA/BOS- Keep the shuttle and bring in the 190's on the route. Bring back profitable routes such as the carribean and allow for connections. These cities can feed the flights on there own and through connections. With the new face of the airline people will give it a try again.
CLT- Keept it as it and build it up as more of a Carribean/South American hub. I think it's far enough south and people from all over the country, through red-eyes and early morning Express flights can feed for the carribean and mid-afternoon SA flights.
PIT- Drop the remaining flights and run a shuttle to philly, and CLT to retain passengers through connections. Also keep hub flight to LAS and PHX. This will allow for more planes from mainline and express to focus on current hubs.
PHX- Bring in some European flights such as LHR/LGW/FRA and feed them from the west coast and from shorts mid-western flights. Some P2P flights might not hurt through the entire system to better compete with SWA. Also I think flights to China could work out of PHX with one stop connections from the west and mid-west.
LAS- Stop cutting flights! Bring in some flights from Europe such as LHR/LGW/FRA/CDG. Bring back the power house night bank of flights, as this will help with aircrafts utilitazion.
Sorry for any spelling errors or words I chopped up, it's late and I don't feel like proof reading and spell checking. So here is what I think might help make US a better airline that I would love to see flying for many years to come.
I also think a nice name for a fresh start would be "New Airways" or an older type name like "Trans-American Airlines/Airways".
1) Rebrand the entire airline, name, paint, interiors and the employees themselves. US East knows how to cater to those with money. They did it for many years and very well.
2) Continue to simplify the fleet, Domestic should go all 190 and Airbus. Keep the 190's focus on the shuttle, and shorter runs up and down the east and out on the west. Business men/women love options of many flights. Keep the 757's for the shorter/medium haul routes to Europe and the big air buses for larger cities and longer hauls. Get rid of all the 50 seaters and anything that was flown with 50 seaters should go to turbo props such as the Q-400 or ATR-72. Take all the 170/175's and Crj-700-900 and add a few First class seats to them. Everyone loves this at UA and DL.
3) The interiors are much nicer then before and look very clean. Continue to add PTV's at a small cost for the PAX and give the headsets for free like CAL. Put in internet and e-mailing options and power ports on all the domestic and international planes. Have cleaners at all hubs and out stations and have them scrubbed at the end of the day. People love clean planes! Rebrand the international product, the name Envoy is my favorite out of any airline, put the same seats on all the planes infront, and stuff the Envoy people with food and add more crew upfront for better service. This is what we do and they love it. In coach add PTV's to the 757's and update them on the airbuses. Add a concierge service to Envoy.
3) Update and upgrade the clubs in all the hubs and have Envoy clubs in PHL AND CLT. Anyone flying in Envoy should enjoy, premium snacks, free liquor, and free business centers.
4) Wipe out management and bring in a whole new crew, with open minds, fresh ideas, and great business ideas, such as a Gordon Bethune.
5) Figure out a way to make the pilot's happy and finally merge them. As for F/A's divide up Domestic and International inside each base and specially train each person for the new product offered. I PERSONALLY and please don't get mad or bicker at me guys, think the east contract is old and outdated. Open up the system to have the ability to fly as much or as little as you want but the least time you fly you lose perks, also like at CAL. Drop the pilot's me to and this will allow for your trips to be more productive and lessen reserve time overall.
6) Join in with CAL and UAL on the ATI and share profits over the Atlantic and assist each others passengers domestically. US has the presence both East and West to make itself a power house.
They also need to bring back the old Divvded Miles program and solicit back all of there old customers and overall UsAirways.com.
As for hubs I think they all need to make the agents happier and bring in new people who want to be there. Join in on gearing towards the business people BUT the lesiure people also. Add in features like we at CAL have such as the ability to have your boarding pass on your PDA and to get through security. These things really make life easier for the customer.
Philly-Focus on Europe and bringing in more routes and instead of seasonal routes cut them in the winter to 3-4 days a week. Make it so that Florida, the west coast, and the rest of the system can connect to Europe. Also making it so that the Carribean can connect to Europe and this will bring in lots of Holiday travelers from Europe.
LGA/DCA/BOS- Keep the shuttle and bring in the 190's on the route. Bring back profitable routes such as the carribean and allow for connections. These cities can feed the flights on there own and through connections. With the new face of the airline people will give it a try again.
CLT- Keept it as it and build it up as more of a Carribean/South American hub. I think it's far enough south and people from all over the country, through red-eyes and early morning Express flights can feed for the carribean and mid-afternoon SA flights.
PIT- Drop the remaining flights and run a shuttle to philly, and CLT to retain passengers through connections. Also keep hub flight to LAS and PHX. This will allow for more planes from mainline and express to focus on current hubs.
PHX- Bring in some European flights such as LHR/LGW/FRA and feed them from the west coast and from shorts mid-western flights. Some P2P flights might not hurt through the entire system to better compete with SWA. Also I think flights to China could work out of PHX with one stop connections from the west and mid-west.
LAS- Stop cutting flights! Bring in some flights from Europe such as LHR/LGW/FRA/CDG. Bring back the power house night bank of flights, as this will help with aircrafts utilitazion.
Sorry for any spelling errors or words I chopped up, it's late and I don't feel like proof reading and spell checking. So here is what I think might help make US a better airline that I would love to see flying for many years to come.
I also think a nice name for a fresh start would be "New Airways" or an older type name like "Trans-American Airlines/Airways".
Travelpro72
Veteran
- Jan 30, 2005
- 4,964
- 455
Ok Hotty.....are you looking for a CEO job at US? My goodness that was a FANTASTIC post with nothing really sounding unreasonable. I agree with cubfan though that #4 would have to be #1 first. The current team through their own arrogance believes in their plan/vision and way of managing. EVERYONE else is wrong or there are 100 reasons why it can't be done. MAN you had some great ideas though. 
SS255
Veteran
+1.
If US made all of the suggestions made by hottootrotNyc, I would RUN, not walk, back to US!
signals
Veteran
I agree for the most part, but UA and CO are in the SA. I honestly don't believe that US is competing with LUV because LUV WNs hands down. US biggest problem is to fix its internal problems and try to clean its reputation. In my area US has an extremely bad rep, and few tend to forgive and as of now, only fly it because of lack of choice. If LUV comes US will be finished...take that to the bank.
In other news, if LCC was a symbol adapted to stand for 'low cost carrier'
(I almost read that with a straight face ), what was their symbol before? MFA???(mudder-f'er-a'holes???) Anyway what was the 'ticker' before some sandcastle flea decided on a pipe dream?
BoeingBoy
Veteran
- Nov 9, 2003
- 16,512
- 5,865
SS255
Veteran
I always thought that "U" was a very bold & sexy ticker symbol....even if it eventually became worthless.
Agree.
And that whole "LCC" thing...
A. is an embarrassment, because according to the latest issue of ATW*, US still has the highest CASM in the industry, and
B. it seems like some dumb idea Biffle or Baldanza would have cooked up. Like Seth.
Glad I don't own any.
* April 2009 issue, page 30.
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