Comments on: NBTA: OpenSkies’ Earth-Shaking Announcement in Los Angeles

By: Seth

Seth — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:40:41 +0000

The 757 could make it from NYC-MXP with fewer seats and/or weight restrictions, but not with a full load. In the winter CO operates EWR-TXL and EWR-BCN, which are a hair shorter, with heavy restrictions on days where the jet stream is particularly bad. Or it is a stop in Gander, which sucks. And I cannot imagine that the premium passengers that OpenSkies is going after are going to keep booking if there are stops en route.

Plus, going in to MXP would pretty much be the final nail in the Alitalia coffin.

I would be surprised by Barcelona coming online. I don’t think that the demand is there year-round for the premium seats.

It is interesting that they have mostly been attacking AF/KL and then AZ, basically going after SkyTeam. Nothing about BRU any more or FRA or DUS or MUC, all of which would seem to have a lot of potential. But they would also require going against LH. And if LH converts on the bmi buy-out then they’d have a lot of slots at Heathrow to fight back with. That would be fun to watch…

By: CF

CF — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:37:20 +0000

rl – Yep, they did. They also have played around with narrowbodies in all-biz configurations to oil cities, so they could potentially give that a shot if they wanted to.

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:31:38 +0000

Wow, Does US really fly a 757 from PHL-ARN? That would surprise me (well…maybe not). I flew a US 757 roundtrip on PHL-DUB, but that’s only 3200. I saw a Continental 757 at BCN, which is 3,800 and change from EWR (DL was flying a 767 from JFK).

By: rl

rl — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:52:47 +0000

Didn’t AF fire the first salvo with LHR-LAX. I can’t imagine they’ll stop at that.

By: L1011

L1011 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:33:40 +0000

Also, US flies some 757 across the pond, PHLARN is close to 4,000 and PHLLIS is about 3600. Granted this is with 176 seats.

By: Ari

Ari — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:45:48 +0000

I have a feeling that BA will bleed AF/KL out of its premium customers and I’m afraid the later has no good way to retaliate without hurting itself further. I’m not sure how much money BA will make initially out of this considering the ticket prices but this is battle on the major scale between 2 of Europe’s last big three standing.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:55:18 +0000

DRG – Yes they are, though the routes have shifted around a bit over time. That’s a very different product in that it’s not a competitive business class seat. I really should do a post on them sometime.

By: DRG

DRG — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:37:12 +0000

Aren’t Lufthansa and Swiss still operating their all business-class service on PrivatAir to New York? Seems like a similar comparison (of course, they were operating them from network hubs)

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:30:36 +0000

Bryan,

Ha–fair enough. I’m not in the income bracket for the upscale seating, but my benchmark for “long” flight is anything over 3,000 miles (there was a period of time when I was flying semi-regularly nonstop between Chicago and Asia, so I’m not saying that NYC-Western Europe is anything to write home about in terms of duration, but I digress). Eastbound to Europe is a cakewalk, but even westbound LHR-JFK warrants one or two walking laps around coach (which, incidentally, you can’t really do in a 757).

By: bryan in san francisco

bryan in san francisco — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:50:20 +0000

Those East Coast to Europe flights are so short – the real market for upscale seating is on the long flights I have to take from the West Coast to Europe. Come on, people!