Comments on: Delta’s Growth in Washington Smells Fishy

By: US Airways Grows LaGuardia at Delta’s Expense - >> The Cranky Flier

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:48:11 +0000

[...] Now the fishy smell is going away. It’s all becoming clear now. US Airways looks to be smacking Delta back for growing in Washington. Nothing says summer fun like an airline brawl, [...]

By: Bill from DC

Bill from DC — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:10:31 +0000

fascinating analysis that i’ve been waiting to see someplace! nice job CF and other posters for getting to the bottom of this.

scott – could that total flight increase be attributable to more thorough usage of slots under the 80% rule, early/late slot utilization, etc.?

By: CF

CF — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:44:27 +0000

I can’t imagine that Delta is going to dramatically lower fares on these routes. Some of these already have low cost carrier competition (eg Orlando, Boston). The others have low cost competition from other DC airports, for the most part.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:06:55 +0000

That was my thinking as well. Why is it bad for cities like Birmingham that they only retain one carrier to DCA and on the other hand it’s not good for other cities to gain competitive service?

By: David SFeastbay

David SFeastbay — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:54:49 +0000

Mark good info. I’ve see schedules like that and often wonder why they did that. Could never figure out how five or ten minutes made a difference to schedule a different time from one to another.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:16:41 +0000

What’s more interesting to me is that, if you look at the full DCA schedule for November 2010 v. November 2009, total flights/week are up by a net 432 year-over-year. Granted, it’s possible some of the cuts coming have not yet been announced, but 432 operations (roughly 14-15 slots per day) are essentially coming out of thin air… (no pun intended)

By: CF

CF — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:56:30 +0000

I doubt it. Something tells me that’s a flight with political importance of some sort.

By: CF

CF — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:55:24 +0000

I don’t know of one, but there probably is one out there.

By: CF

CF — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:54:55 +0000

There are some slots at National available early or late (which is how JetBlue got its last slot to round out the American deal). I don’t believe there are seat size restrictions, but maybe someone else can correct me.

By: CF

CF — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:53:59 +0000

Good stuff. Now, I have to assume that these slots wouldn’t have been included in the swap, right? I mean, why would US Airways want slots it already had access to. I imagine US Airways expected to continue leasing these slots and then get the slots in the swap as well. So it could be even a bigger loss for US Airways than we initially thought. If that’s the case, I wonder if it changes US Airways’ thoughts on giving in the government demands (if they lose the lawsuit). I mean, now it’s a bigger number of slots going away. Then again, LaGuardia is now making some money for them, so they’re in less of a hurry.