Zach Wichter is moving on from USA Today (best of luck, Zach!) and so he did a final column looking into the future. I gave my own take.
Why don’t more US airlines have stopover programs the way airlines like Icelandair do? It’s just not that kind of market, I told Travel Weekly.
Hawaiian (HA) Stop Over Program? Right, let’s entice the Seattle world traveler to waste 3 days of his family 2 week vacation in Honolulu, which has been his family go to vacation every winter for the last 13 years (except the one PVR). Manly, Bondi? & especially Brisbane beaches out class Waikiki beach, not to mention downtown world class SYD compared to downtown Honolulu (no tourist ever been to downtown HNL). Toss in scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru (Ayers Rock) or Melbourne.
AS management behind in redeploying B787 airframe SEA non stop SYD, also SYD non stop CHC Christchurch, NZ (AKL is a tourist wasteland, compared to the South Island of New Zealand, think Ireland with warm weather).
AS management dump the Hawaiian Culture BS & move faster forward in creating AS SEA international Hub. Especially while DAL is busy trying to dominate LAX, or Delta will shift their focus back on SEA like FCO & BCN.
Hawaiian (HA) Stop Over Program? Right, let’s entice the Seattle world traveler to waste 3 days of his family 2 week vacation in Honolulu, which has been his family go to vacation every winter for the last 13 years (except the one PVR). Manly, Bondi? & especially Brisbane beaches out class Waikiki beach, not to mention downtown world class SYD compared to downtown Honolulu (no tourist ever been to downtown HNL). Toss in scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru (Ayers Rock) or Melbourne.
AS management behind in redeploying B787 airframe SEA non stop SYD, also SEA non stop CHC Christchurch, NZ (AKL is a tourist wasteland, compared to the South Island of New Zealand). At least during the SEA winter months, after CNX FCO in October for the winter months.
Forget the stopover culture, make the US a functional place to connect through instead. Would open up more options from Europe through to Central and South America for starters. Or Aus/NZ. But it’s never gonna happen.
Never say never Bob, but you may be correct, have to see how the Qantas Airbus SYD non stop to LHR works out, who really wants a stop over in the sand? Alaska Airlines management realized early on Seattle pax’s had no interest in stopping in HNL for Seattle flights to Tokyo, & Seoul. My take is nobody in Seattle wants a stop over in HNL on flights to Sydney or New Zealand. For too long SEA had to stopover in ORD or NYC to go to Europe. Calgary pax’s had to stop in Toronto to fly to Europe, then WestJet bought B787, game changer for Alberta. Does a European really want to see MIA again on his way to RIO or EZE.
You mentioned two major choke points together, ATC and runways, and I was surprised to see the latter.
Are there really airports that would be handling more traffic currently if they had another runway or two? Not including airports like MDW, DCA and SAN where there is simply no space to add another.
It’s probably my DC bias but I was under the impression that the current issues preventing more flights in the US (not considering market based issues) came down to outdated ATC, ineffective ATC and insufficient headcount at ATC.
Bill – In my opinion, it’s both. You certainly have ATC issues, but look at the airports in New York and Chicago… and DCA. There is just no ability to push more airplanes through there when people want to fly. In Newark, it’s all about runway timings, not gate constraints. Runways can help a lot. And as in the case in Chicago, runways can be reconfigured to greatly improve throughput.
That’s interesting, I did not know that runway throughput was the major issue at EWR.
I think the landlocked airports are a different category as there is literally nothing that can be done that wouldn’t involve a decades long, LHR type of debacle. My gut tells me this category encompasses many more airports than the “we need to slap down another 8 or 9 thousand feet of concrete but don’t want to spend the money” category. Then again, my gut has not served me well lately!
The only reason why I would consider a stopover in HNL would be if it was the only way to avoid 12+ hrs in coach on the way to somewhere else.
I don’t really understand the HNL bashing. It’s worth a stopover just to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.
Are people considering that HNL might be a stopover before simply continuing on to another Hawaiian island like Maui and not another long haul flight?
It’s my least favorite island on Hawaii by far. I don’t like the crowds along Waikiki or the fact that H1 is always jammed with traffic. It does not feel like paradise to me.
southbay – There’s a lot more on that island than just the Honolulu area. There are some fantastic places to explore.
Since Copa was mentioned, I just wanna say, yet again, kudos to them for actually installing lie-flat (even in 2-2) on some of their 737s. For 5+ hour redeyes, far better to have a bad than a recliner… now, why can’t AA, AS, DL, UA, etc. do more of that… hmm…