Who wants a merger with US?

[AAviator]

dupe

 

[eolesen]

Mike Boyd agrees with you.. Or should I say you agree with him.

Well, I'm guessing we both came to the same conclusion. I don't seek out Mike's stuff, and unless he's really lurking anonymously on these forums, I doubt he seeks out my opinions... 😉

Search the web archives, and you'll see that's more or less been my opinion on hubs since before the AA-TWA deal, when STL had four times as much air service as BOS. Not so much on this site, but on certainly over at PlaneBusiness...

 

[737823]

Spoken like a narrow-minded bigot who has probably never experienced life outside of a brownstone.

Personally, I'd never consider raising a family within 100 miles of NYC, based on the first hand experience of having lived there, as opposed to having just visited there a few times. How anyone can afford to actually live there these days is beyond me. Give me 10 acres in Flagstaff AZ, Kerrville TX, or Savoy IL, and I'd be perfectly happy.

The only real opportunities I miss about the Northeast is the ability to find good fold-over pizza.

Not bigoted, simply sharing my perspective. I grew up in New York, have lived in Valencia CA and am now in the Boston area. Everyone has their own point of view and brings their perspective to this forum. I wouldn't be interested in moving my family to NC, I don't have any family there, know very few people, and other than lower property taxes I don't see a compelling reason to move there.

Josh

 

[Buck]

Maybe after American buys US, you can move to Tulsa for a change of pace....

 

[Rogallo]

Not bigoted, simply sharing my perspective. I grew up in New York, have lived in Valencia CA and am now in the Boston area. Everyone has their own point of view and brings their perspective to this forum. I wouldn't be interested in moving my family to NC, I don't have any family there, know very few people, and other than lower property taxes I don't see a compelling reason to move there.

Josh

The people of the great state of NC thank you!!!

 

[luvthe9]

An American Airlines executive said the carrier’s pilots, a pivotal group in a merger, are questioning the ability of potential suitor US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) to orchestrate a successful takeover.

Pilots expect a hostile bid from US Airways and “have very serious concerns” about such a tie-up, Vice President for Flight John Hale wrote in a memo today to American Chief Executive Officer Tom Horton and other leaders at the third- largest U.S. airline.

“I’m confident pilots will continue to be very skeptical about US Airways’ ability to integrate separate workforces or grow the combined company,” he wrote. “The phrase ‘all hat and no cattle’ comes to mind. There’s little indication from anyone I’ve spoken to that a takeover by US would produce greater opportunity for our pilots than American’s business plan.”

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-10/amr-executive-says-pilots-doubt-idea-of-us-airways-merger.html?cmpid=yhoo LETS STOP THIS MERGER!!!!

 

[spike99]

ame='eolesen' timestamp='1334096751' post='888508']
Thanks for clarifying. I'd lost track along the way.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No metro area of less than 2.5-3M people requires the level of air service CLT has, and that includes both DEN and SLC. Arguably, DEN and SLC work marginally better because of geography and far lower population densities in the Rockies.

If you need to drive 60-70% connecting traffic thru a hub to make it work, it is fatally flawed. That's what killed STL, CVG, PIT, RDU, BNA, and appears to slowly be killing off what remains at MEM & CLE.
[/quote]
While Clt is a small city, it is the second largest financial center in the US behind NYC. Since this is the largest portion of our current economy, special consideration might be needed. None of the previously mentioned cities are as important to the countries economic status as Clt. In addition, no one can deny AA has been trying to establish a southeast hub for years, Clt would certainly work. I'm neautral as far as any merger might be concerned, but please don't say Clt would be of no value to AA.

Spike

 

[BoeingBoy]

While Clt is a small city, it is the second largest financial center in the US behind NYC.

Banking, not financial, due to primarily BofA. A number of cities rank higher on the list of financial centers due to the number/size of financial institutions other than banks being located in them. Think of things like Fidelity Investments headquartered in Boston.

Jim

 

[FWAAA]

While Clt is a small city, it is the second largest financial center in the US behind NYC. Since this is the largest portion of our current economy, special consideration might be needed. None of the previously mentioned cities are as important to the countries economic status as Clt. In addition, no one can deny AA has been trying to establish a southeast hub for years, Clt would certainly work. I'm neautral as far as any merger might be concerned, but please don't say Clt would be of no value to AA.

None of the above refutes eolesen's correct assertion that CLT lacks sufficient O&D traffic to profitably support a huge hub operation. When Parker tells the US employees that US cannot pay the same wages as AA, DL or UA, it's because the US hubs do not produce the same high revenue as those other airline hubs, and that's because too many of CLT passengers are low-yield connecting passengers. Not enough high-fare nonstop fortress hub victims.

Yes, Charlotte is a great city, but it's not Atlanta or Chicago or New York or Dallas/Fort Worth or Los Angeles or San Francisco. It's just Charlotte. Important as it may be, it's something like the 32d largest metro area (by population). A great place to live. A great place to visit. From the passengers' perspective, a great hub for connections. From a profit perspective, not such a great hub.

 

[700UW]

But yet it is the sixth busiest airport in the nation.

 

[damajagua]

No matter if you put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.
NO to a US/AA merger!!!!

 

[BoeingBoy]

But yet it is the sixth busiest airport in the nation.

But by what yardstick? By enplanements, which includes connecting traffic, it wasn't in the top 10 for 2011. By O&D traffic it was number 28 in 2010.

Jim

 

[FWAAA]

But yet it is the sixth busiest airport in the nation.

It's actually the eleventh busiest airport in the USA (by number of passengers) in 2011, behind ATL, ORD, LAX, DFW, DEN, JFK, LAS, SFO, PHX and IAH:

http://www.airports.org/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-212-218-222_666_2__

Yes, it is the sixth busiest by number of aircraft movements, but that's irrelevant to the economic viability of a hub at CLT:

http://www.airports.org/cda/aci_common/display/main/aci_content07_c.jsp?zn=aci&cp=1-5-212-231_666_2__

CLT's deficiency is not the number of passengers - it's that too high a proportion of them are connecting passengers and not CLT O&D passengers.

 

[700UW]

And they just announced a Billion dollar expansion plan.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Yes, it is the sixth busiest by number of aircraft movements, but that's irrelevant to the economic viability of a hub at CLT:

If there's any doubt of that, just look at the airport ahead of CLT that isn'y a hub any longer - LAS. (unless you count WN's "focus city" term as a hub)

MCO would be above CLT too if O&D was all that counted.

Jim