Comments on: American and Alaska Detail Plans to Shrink

By: Gordon Werner

Gordon Werner — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:49:21 +0000

A lot of the changes that Horizon is making also reflects the pull-down of the Q200 fleet, replacing more flights with fewer Q400s.

In some cases total seats available goes up others it remains more or less constant.

Horizon (and Alaska) already operates multi-stop flights and it has worked well for many of the communities involved

By: CF

CF — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:42:08 +0000

Well, if the local route truly is just a business traveler route, then fares should be kept relatively high. $800? No, that’s not going to get much traffic at all, but $400 might. I haven’t looked at the makeup of these flights personally, but they may just be such a small piece of the puzzle that they kind of fall under the radar and nobody pays attention. With new jets coming into the market, that may have to change.

By: Million Miler

Million Miler — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:15:06 +0000

Nicholas
I actually think you and I are on the same page here. I understand the desire to accommodate the connecting passenger.

My question is what are they protecting? The pricing is so messed up that they actually need someone to ante up the $800 to cover the loss on the long haul.

Business people aren’t going to drive from the LA basin to Monterey. That drive is for the tourists. But they will fly Alaska or Southwest into San Jose, rent a car and drive over to Monterey. Maybe next time the business person needs to go to Monterey he/she doesn’t even bother to check the Monterey flight and just books the flight into San Jose.

A potential consequence of this is they end up with no point to point passengers and have to increasingly discount the connections to fill the empty seats. Next they abandon the market because they can’t make a profit.

At the end of the day wouldn’t they do much better to price the LAX-MRY closer to the going rate for LA Basin/Nor Cal? They can justify a modest premium to reflect the fact that the drive from San Jose is a pain in the neck.

Cranky is the yield management expert here. But from where I sit, the market is shaking out and the winners will likely be the folks with a history of pricing their product fairly – and not antagonizing their best customers with unrealistically high fares that scream “we don’t want you”!

By: CW

CW — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:30:17 +0000

The last time I was in Stansted, a large expansion was being built just for American. I bet the BAA is not happy at all about this.

By: Nicholas Barnard

Nicholas Barnard — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:32:57 +0000

Million Miler, they’ve probably protecting the short hauls for the connecting traffic. If someone wants to go from MRY to JFK they’re probably not open to driving to LAX. If someone just wants to go from MRY to LAX it is much more likely that driving it would be an option, if it is not American wants you to pay for the privilege of kicking out a possibly lucrative connecting passenger.

By: Million Miler

Million Miler — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:41:19 +0000

But if you check the price from Monterey to JFK you will find that seats are still available mid-week of next week for about the same or less than the price of Monterey to LAX alone. You can depart MRY at 2:00 pm and arrive JFK just after midnight for only $179 with about an hour layover in LAX. There are several options with two connections via LAX and DFW at similar prices.

I find this is common for AA. Sometimes it feels as if they don’t seem to really want to carry local traffic, they would rather have the connecting business. You will frequently find the same situations in other short haul markets DFW-OKC, DFW-TUL, even DFW-HOU.

By: CF

CF — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:53:53 +0000

Not quite, “required_name” – it’s actually a good 325 mile drive to Monterey, but yes, your point is taken. That is REALLY pricey.

By: required_name

required_name — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:16:15 +0000

I can see why nobody flies AA directly from LAX to monterey (I assume you mean the CA city, not the mexican): a quick travelocity search for mid-week flights first week next month resulted in the cheapest return flight offer being $819. that’s a two-hour drive, folks!

I have a feeling they are already actively discouraging people from taking this flight.

By: Million Miler

Million Miler — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:15:27 +0000

Interesting decision to move aircraft with operating limitations in icing conditions to Dallas in the middle of the winter. I assume the decision makers live in the Dallas area and realize that despite being a “sun belt” city, Dallas has at least the potential for icing every 5-7 days in the winter months as cold fronts blow thru the region pretty much on a regular schedule.

I assume that they also understand that icing is a big part of how the ATRs got shipped to San Juan to begin with.

By: James

James — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:45:58 +0000

Qantas is also cutting capacity: http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/au/publicaffairs/details?ArticleID=2008/may08/Q3768

“Despite our fuel hedging strategy, fuel surcharges, two separate across-the-board fare increases and a recruitment freeze, we are not bridging the widening gap between the actual increase in the cost of fuel and the amount we offset.”

* retiring one B737 aircraft;
* grounding two B767 aircraft and one Jetstar A320 aircraft;
* cancelling the delivery of one Jetstar A321 aircraft;
* accelerating the retirement of its four B747-300 aircraft, currently operating trans-continental services to Perth, by December; and
* adjusting the flying patterns of other aircraft, including reducing the utilisation of the B747-400 fleet.

I flew on a B747-300 twice last week to and from Perth, the entertainment system is still geared for international flights. I wonder what they’ll replace them with since they were ~3/4 full.

* Qantas would exit its Gold Coast-Sydney and Ayers Rock-Melbourne routes and reduce Ayers Rock-Sydney services from August;
* Jetstar would exit its Sydney-Whitsunday Coast, Adelaide-Sunshine Coast, and Brisbane-Hobart routes from July; and
* Jetstar would reduce services on some Adelaide, Avalon and Cairns routes by August.