Is Fargo really big enough for another airline? Allegiant’s already picking off some connection traffic with some occasional direct flights. And then there’s Frontier, UAL, and Northwest. I realize Fargo has a huge Microsoft campus and that Hector International has the capacity but it seems like a bit much for a metro area of 200k.

Cranky
Did AA acquire Delta’s old gates in Concourse L in order to better facilitate this expansion? I believe there are/were six of them.
VX wanted to get at least one of those in the worst way.

I asked American for comment on this and they say the gates are still controlled by Delta. In other words, nothing has happened yet, but they are interested.

**********
I see your point. I suppose I just refer to them as what they are: CRJ700/ERJ170. I’ve never really understood referring to a type by the number of seats since it can vary from carrier to carrier. You don’t often hear anyone referring to CO’s 173 seaters. You hear them refer to the 737-900. Like I said, small technicality, but one that’s always confused me a little.

I have to say I am continually baffled as to why NW kept both MSP and DTW as hubs.

I hear comments from out-of-towners all the time who are astonished at the size of the MSP hub. What most people don’t realize is that Minnesota actually is home to a broad base of Fortune 500 companies. Actually more than some larger states like Florida, for example. This brings in a lot of O/D traffic. Also a company like a Target or Cargill generates a lot of high profit international traffic.

From what I’ve seen of STL, they just don’t have the business base to support a hub, even though metro population is about the same as MSP.

TMOliver wrote:

Where will the next disestablishment occur?

Good question – I tend to think that Cincinnati should be the next one, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’ll happen.

David wrote:

With hindsight, what did American really gain in the long term when it took over TWA ?

Well they had this grand plan of focusing the locals in Chicago and then flowing all the cheap crap over St Louis. That plan failed from day 1. So effectively they just got rid of a competitor and did nothing with it – American has a great track record of doing that over and over again. (Air Cal? Reno Air?)

David SFeastbay wrote:

Off topic but I just read where you were quoted in a yahoo travel story today called.
8 Things an Airline Would Never Tell You

Ah yes, that was an interview I did with BudgetTravel, and I guess Yahoo picked it up. Cool.

Wonko Beeblebrox wrote:

Did I read this correctly?
AA restarts up flights Chicago->Anchorage just after the _end_ of the summer season?
SmAArt thinking there, guys…

No, most of these new flights won’t take effect until March/April/May 2010. I think it’s probably a safe bet that the Anchorage flight will start toward the end of that time period.

SirWired wrote:

Though I suppose the “rule” isn’t real hard-and-fast… I have to say I am continually baffled as to why NW kept both MSP and DTW as hubs. Neither city is exactly a gigantic metropolis at the moment (and DTW getting less so by the day), and they aren’t terribly far from each other.

These are surprisingly distinct markets, I agree. But it seems to have worked for the airline. Detroit covers all those smaller rust belt cities through the Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York State areas. Minneapolis covers the upper Midwest – the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. It seems like they wouldn’t be necessary, but they both do have strong corporate bases (despite the exodus from Detroit city – there is still business in the ‘burbs). Those American automakers bring a lot of travel, even when they’re perilously close to death.

JayB wrote:

Perhaps this guy Cranky could put a litlle column to the right here, highlighting his upcoming appearances for us loyal readers?

Hah. I do put links to everything online in my Saturday post (I covered this one last week, I think). But I will be in London soon. Once I know my itinerary, I’ll see if I have to possibly meet anyone over there for a pint or two. (No promises, just keeping my fingers crossed I have time.)

UT Flyer wrote:

I realize it’s a small technicality, but it’s not really correct terminology to refer to UA’s Explus aircraft as “70 seaters.” In fact, UA operates Explus on two aircraft type: the ERJ 170 (70 seats including 6 F class) and the CRJ-700 (66 seats including 6 F class).

So how would you refer to them? Those not quite 50 and not quite 90 seat airplanes? I’m not going to call them the Explus aircraft because nobody knows what that is. So if you have a better way of referring to them, I’m all ears.

Thomas Schellingerhout wrote:

And to American’s reinforcing fortress hubs where the trend is an ever expanding point to point flying (one of the reasons SW is killing American in their markets) and not have the cost inefficiences of staffing large hub operations—good luck with that American. I will see you out of business in 5-7 years.

The death of the hub and spoke model has been predicted for years, but it will never happen. How can you get from Springfield to Bakersfield? You’ll never get point to point service everywhere so hubs are here to stay.

Jacob wrote:

When Dad was due home in the evening, via ORD, my Mother learned to not even bother making dinner -his arrival time was to unpredictable. Gotta love O’Hell International. At least the Cards are putting the beat down on the Scrubs….er..I mean Cubs.

True, but O’Hare is actually much, much better now that they’ve opened their newest runway. Take a look at delays – O’Hare doesn’t really see very many anymore. The new runway combined with lower traffic has been great for that place.

Julian wrote:

I live in St. Louis and have to disagree with the statment that St. Louis didn’t provide enough service to American. In fact, American spokeman themselves even stated that it wasn’t the market in St. Louis that contributed to this decision. I don’t hardly call a major metropolitan area with 2.8 million people a ghost town who doesn’t like to travel. But Compared to Chicago with a metro population of close to 9 million, I would have done the same thing. You’re looking at an Airline who’s on he verge of avoiding bankrupt. But St. Louis is a vilable market. If it were not so then Air China wouldn’t be strking a deal with city officials to make St. Louis their North American trading hub (check the news before you throw out bad information). We’ll never lose hub status. Just as sure as American leaves, someone else will come in……watch.

I would expect to see some other airlines step in to fill the void here with some flights, but I would be really surprised to see a full-fledged hub operation ever come back. St Louis is a declining city like many places in middle America. If American said that St Louis had nothing to do with the decision, they’re full of crap. You don’t just walk away from a profitable hub operation. They clearly didn’t like what they saw and didn’t see a way to make it work. I don’t know who else would step in to form a hub. Note, I’m not saying that St Louis doesn’t deserve service. There is still demand there. There’s just not enough to support a hub.

RD wrote:

My understanding with leaving St Louis has to do with AA needing to try and make the OneWorld alliance more competitive. None of its partners service St Louis and they need to look for more synergies with this airline grouping. I can assure you this decision was not taken in isolation as it is moving to strenghten the OneWorld alliance because that is where the battle lines are now being drawn. St Louis plays no part in this.

These moves were definitely aimed at strengthening oneworld, but they could have kept St Louis around if it was a good market regardless of the alliance situation.

AA didn’t want STL to begin with – even after the “merger” (their words until the papers were signed), all 3 concourses were packed and if you didn’t have a reserve seat, good luck getting one! Even their own employees in ORD/DFW were PO’d with the initial raping in 2003 because it put to much pressure on those 2 cities. ORD was bad enough with delays prior to 2003, but does anybody remember how much worse it got after the STL downsize? AA denies they caused it but those extra flights had to go somewhere.